Recaps

After sending the Dwarfs home, Li Qinwu learned that his journey would continue for another fifteen to twenty years. Buni Tansen offered Adamantium components in exchange for alcohol, and Li Qinwu proposed delivering the liquor by magnetic rail-launched warheads, suspecting the Dwarfs had a nearby industrial planet.

• Li Qinwu sent the Dwarfs home and ordered the Shuttle to continue toward its destination, which was still fifteen to twenty years away.
• Buni Tansen contacted Li Qinwu from the Dwarf warship and proposed trading Adamantium components for real alcohol.
• Li Qinwu accepted, seeing a chance to obtain parts for Squire Mechs before his own factories could forge Adamantium.
• Li Qinwu proposed filling Magnetic Warheads with alcohol and launching them for the Dwarfs to collect nearby.
• Li Qinwu suspected the Dwarfs had a hidden Industrial World in the region.

Li Qinwu arranged a yearly liquor trade with the Space Dwarfs in exchange for Adamantium components and industrial equipment, then learned that their Melta Gun technology could be traded to Mars as an STC Template. Iron Skull Archmagos warned that Mars would likely hoard the technology instead of using it.

• Buni Tansen negotiated a yearly trade in which the Dwarfs would bring Adamantium frames and industrial equipment to Agricultural World 496B in exchange for liquor.
• Li Qinwu agreed to the trade, and both sides finalized the terms before their warships departed.
• Li Qinwu returned to the Golden Road and gave Iron Skull Archmagos the mechanical USB drive containing the Dwarfs' Melta Gun technology.
• Iron Skull Archmagos said the technology was a valuable STC Template that could earn Li Qinwu ten or twenty Knight Mechs from Mars.
• Iron Skull Archmagos warned Li Qinwu that Mars would probably validate and hide the technology rather than put it to use.

Li Qinwu secured the Iron Furnace Archmagos’s help designing and manufacturing a full range of Plasma Weapons, but learned he would need a Planetary Forge to claim another favor. After his fleet reached Solar 611, he reviewed the planet’s records and prepared to investigate it in person.

• Li Qinwu asked whether he could sell the same technology to multiple buyers, but the Iron Furnace Archmagos warned that the Adeptus Mechanicus would catch him and punish him.
• Li Qinwu called in a favor to obtain Plasma Weapons, and the Iron Furnace Archmagos agreed to design and manufacture a complete set.
• Li Qinwu asked how to obtain a Planetary Forge, but rejected the Archmagos’s suggestions to cooperate with the Adeptus Mechanicus or steal one.
• Li Qinwu’s fleet exited the Warp near Solar 611, and he ordered the Fortune to approach the planet.
• Li Qinwu used the Fortune’s Intelligence Station to assess the planetary governor’s rebellion value at 0.1%, then decided to visit the planet himself.

Li Qinwu arrived at Solar Planet 611 with one hundred Ogryn bodyguards and made the terrified planetary governor feed and bathe them before declaring the planet’s inspection passed. He then switched from his Inquisitor persona to his merchant persona and asked the governor about doing business, while secretly taking the governor’s attempted bribe.

• The planetary governor and officials trembled as Li Qinwu arrived, and one hundred bawling Ogryns poured out of his shuttle.
• Li Qinwu ordered the governor to bathe and feed his bodyguards, so the officials scrubbed the Ogryns in the governor’s pool and served them a banquet.
• Li Qinwu slept while the Ogryns ate and told stories, then woke eight hours later to find them asleep.
• Li Qinwu declared the inspection passed, put away his Rosette, and asked the governor what the planet produced so they could make money together.
• The governor offered Li Qinwu a gold card containing one million Thrones, and Li Qinwu angrily condemned the attempted bribe before pocketing the card.

Li Qinwu traded agricultural goods for industrial products on Solar Planet 611, then took his fleet to Sun 938. After discovering the Adeptus Mechanicus had imprisoned the planetary governor, he ordered his personnel to avoid the planet’s internal affairs and leave quickly.

• Li Qinwu bought wheat, wine, butter, and milk from Solar Planet 611 and sold the governor weapons, mechs, and cable for one million each.
• Li Qinwu settled three hundred people on Solar Planet 611 after buying them an earl’s title, then departed with his fleet.
• Li Qinwu’s fleet traveled through the Warp and arrived at Sun 938, where his Intelligence Station reported that the planetary governor was detained.
• Li Qinwu learned that Sun 938’s Great Sage had manipulated the governor’s youngest son into killing his brothers and imprisoning their father to gain control of the planet.
• Li Qinwu ordered his personnel to avoid going down to Sun 938, trade for industrial goods, and leave without intervening in the planet’s internal affairs.

Li Qinwu arrived at Sun 938 to sell food and avoided getting involved in a power struggle between the planetary governor and the Adeptus Mechanicus. After inspecting his goods, the governor’s youngest son privately admitted to killing his brother and imprisoning his father, then asked Li Qinwu to take the governor away.

• Li Qinwu contacted the planetary governor, who tried to signal for help while a young Tech-Priest held him hostage.
• When the governor shouted that the Adeptus Mechanicus had rebelled, the Tech-Priest shocked him and took over the call.
• The Tech-Priest came aboard the Fortune with several red-robed companions and rated Li Qinwu’s wheat, butter, wine, and milk as high-quality goods.
• The young Tech-Priest met Li Qinwu privately and revealed that he had killed his brother and imprisoned his father to bring the planet under the Omnissiah.
• The young Tech-Priest told Li Qinwu that the Archmagos had ordered him to dispose of the governor and asked Li Qinwu to take his father away.

Li Qinwu struck a deal with a young Tech-Priest to exile the Tech-Priest’s father and buy industrial supplies for Sun 938. He then offered Holy Oil in exchange for Fury Interceptors to turn the Fortune into a carrier, and the chapter ended with him bargaining over the price.

• Li Qinwu agreed to remove the young Tech-Priest’s father and about five hundred staff in exchange for a small Astartes Boltgun and Bolt Round production line, along with Sun 938’s promise to overlook his planet’s activities.
• The young Tech-Priest valued Li Qinwu’s agricultural goods at seven million, and Li Qinwu spent the proceeds on Plasma Reactors, synthesis units, Cogitator Arrays, and other industrial equipment.
• Li Qinwu gave the young Tech-Priest a sample of Holy Oil, which he claimed improved the efficiency of machinery with Machine Spirits.
• Three days later, the young Tech-Priest returned excitedly and asked Li Qinwu for more Holy Oil.
• Li Qinwu offered to trade Holy Oil for Fury Interceptors so he could expand the Fortune’s combat capability, and he haggled after the Tech-Priest proposed one thousand liters per aircraft.

Li Qinwu traded Holy Oil for more Fury Interceptors and refitted Fortune to house them, then received a planetary governor and his staff. He assigned Rudosen to reform the 500 nobles into civilian logistics workers, leaving Rudosen dismayed at the task.

• The Great Sage tested Li Qinwu’s Holy Oil on an Emperor's Poison Blade Tank, found its performance dramatically improved, and ordered the young Tech-Priest to acquire more.
• Li Qinwu traded 11,000 liters of Holy Oil for 100 Standard Fury Interceptors and 10 Bomber Roar Interceptors, bringing his aircraft total to 150.
• Li Qinwu overhauled Fortune’s interior into hangars, but the aircraft arrived without pilots, leaving him short of the crew needed to fly them.
• Little Knife brought Li Qinwu the planetary governor and more than 500 staff; seeing the nobles’ delusions of restoring their rule, Li Qinwu ordered them sent to Rudosen for reform.
• Little Knife delivered the 500 nobles to Rudosen, who was already frustrated by Little Sun’s poor performance and despaired at being tasked with training them.

Little Knife advised Rudosen to use gang methods to reform the former nobles, and Rudosen began training them through forced exercise and rationed meals. The Fattys were assigned to Training Regiment 1, where they struggled through a run and fought over food, while Big Black terrorized Little Sun.

• Little Knife told Rudosen to make the Fattys compete over limited food and hinted at a second gang method.
• Little Sun promised the planetary governor he would help him reclaim his position, and Rudosen kicked him away before naming himself commander of Training Regiment 1 and Big Black his deputy.
• Rudosen ordered the Fattys to run five kilometers, and Big Black frightened the exhausted planetary governor into continuing.
• After the Fattys completed their run, they rushed the rationed food, and one of them punched Little Sun when he tried to force his way to a meal.
• Little Sun accepted food from Big Black, then fled when Big Black invited him to his room and chased him on all fours.

Li Qinwu salvaged steel from an ancient space station and transported it through the Portal to expand the Vault. During an inspection, he learned that small aircraft had appeared nearby in the Warp and that the tea in the Vault had mutated.

• Li Qinwu ordered Fortune's bombers to blast apart weak points in the abandoned space station, while pilots trained and SCVs began hauling the wreckage to Mine Snail.
• Li Qinwu visited Mine Snail and used the Portal to send steel plates into the Vault for its expansion.
• Li Qinwu inspected the Vault's defenses and found Warp corruption levels were low; a young monk reported that the occupants had heard no strange voices.
• The young monk told Li Qinwu that small aircraft were observing the Vault from the Warp, and that the tea planted on Level -1 had undergone a mutation.

Li Qinwu discovered that the purple tea had become Soul Tea, which could gradually increase Warp Essence, then visited the mutated Inquisitor Thraxol in his hidden room. Thraxol found hope in learning he would soon have a son, but his despair over meeting the child caused his growing psychic power to freeze the floor.

• Li Qinwu identified the purple tea as Soul Tea and ordered the little monk to harvest some for him.
• Li Qinwu visited the hidden room where Inquisitor Thraxol and his heavily mutated Ogryn bodyguard were kept.
• Thraxol regretted trusting Li Qinwu's promise that he could become a Daemon Inquisitor, and Li Qinwu tried to reassure him about his loyalty.
• Li Qinwu showed Thraxol a scan of Nova's fetus and told him Nova was due to give birth soon.
• Thraxol was pleased to learn he had a son, then despaired that his mutated appearance would keep him from meeting the child, causing frost to spread across the floor.

Li Qinwu offered the mutated Inquisitor Thraxol a new purpose by proposing that he join the loyal but corrupted Gray Bone Chapter as its political commissar. Thraxol agreed to prepare for the journey, and he named his soon-to-be-born son Chloe.

• Thraxol regretted that his mutation kept him from raising his son and feared his blasphemous aura would harm the child.
• Li Qinwu told Thraxol about the Gray Bone Chapter, whose warriors remained loyal to the God-Emperor despite centuries of Warp corruption.
• Li Qinwu proposed sending Thraxol to serve as the Gray Bone Chapter's political commissar, and Thraxol eagerly accepted the possibility.
• Li Qinwu gave Thraxol a book of offensive Warp spells and said he would help him train before they searched for the Chapter in the Frontier Segmentum.
• Thraxol named his soon-to-be-born son Chloe, meaning newborn in Old Terra.

Catwoman Nova gave birth to Chloe, a Warp-born infant with two tails and extraordinary psychic potential, and asked Li Qinwu to become his adoptive father. Li Qinwu and Inquisitor Thraxol agreed, but Thraxol's revelation that he had obtained Li Qinwu a Rogue Trader Warrant left Li Qinwu surprised.

• During the fleet's four-month Warp voyage, Nova gave birth to a healthy child with two tails, which Li Qinwu identified as a positive mutation and a sign of psychic power.
• Nova asked Li Qinwu to raise the child as his adoptive son, explaining that Thraxol could not be a constant father figure; she revealed that she already knew Thraxol was alive.
• The infant's tails drew three percent of Li Qinwu's Psychic Power before releasing him, convincing Li Qinwu to accept the adoption pending Thraxol's agreement.
• Nova gave Li Qinwu a USB drive containing her message for Thraxol, and Thraxol agreed to leave the child's care to Li Qinwu; they called the child Troy.
• Thraxol asked whether Li Qinwu had received the Rogue Trader Warrant he had arranged, and Li Qinwu said he had never heard of it.

Li Qinwu learned that the Pale Baron had withheld his Rogue Trader warrant and used the Emperor Tarot to infer why he had disappeared. He concluded that the Pale Baron was near their home sector, hoping to use the warrant to establish his own Rogue Trader dynasty, and vowed to find him.

• Li Qinwu and Inquisitor Thraxol discovered that the Pale Baron had kept the Rogue Trader warrant and vanished after returning to Purple Diamond Star.
• Li Qinwu asked the Silent One to use the Emperor Tarot to locate the Pale Baron, but tore up the first card when it revealed a clown.
• The Silent One drew cards showing Jealousy, Anger, and the Petty Man, and explained that the final card's unchanged mist meant Li Qinwu already knew the answer.
• Li Qinwu realized the Pale Baron had resented him, blamed him for Thraxol's death, and withheld the warrant to take revenge and claim it for himself.
• Li Qinwu deduced that the Pale Baron must be near their home sector and threatened to blow up his Old Feng when the fleet returned.

Li Qinwu brought his fleet to Savage World, where he found a primitive recruitment planet under attack and discovered that its Warp contamination was dangerously high. The planetary bishop refused his inspection, and the Warp reading surged even higher as Li Qinwu prepared to intervene.

• Li Qinwu reached Segmentum Ultima with Chloe and learned that Savage World was a primitive planet used to recruit Barbarian soldiers.
• Li Qinwu found that Savage World's Warp contamination index was 2,300 and ordered the fleet to contact the Imperial Cult there.
• The captain reported that Barbarians were attacking the planet's hive city, where the Imperial Cult and PDF were defending the walls.
• Li Qinwu identified himself to the planetary bishop as an Inquisitor, but the bishop denied that anything was wrong and told him to leave.
• The captain warned Li Qinwu that Savage World's Warp reading had risen to 3,000.

The Savage World's PDF defended the Hive City from Barbarian attacks, but Beast Priests used mass sacrifices to summon enormous monsters. The monsters charged the city, and one leaped over its walls and began killing indiscriminately.

• The PDF killed scores of Barbarians attacking the Hive City's walls, forcing the survivors to retreat.
• A raven-dressed priest urged the Barbarians to sacrifice themselves in bonfires to gain the Beast God's power.
• A Barbarian couple carried their malformed newborn into the flames, while sacrifices took place across the tribes' camps.
• After tens of thousands had perished, the bonfires produced more than a hundred gigantic, beast-like monsters.
• The monsters charged the Hive City, and its autoguns failed to stop them.
• A black-furred monster leaped over the wall, crashed into the barracks, and began slaughtering people inside the city.

Li Qinwu investigated the suspicious planetary authorities while the Hive City came under attack by giant monsters and millions of Barbarians. He sent aircraft and troops to defend the city’s breaches, while preserving the chance to investigate the monsters’ gathering place.

• Li Qinwu questioned the PDF marshal after the planetary bishop declined his call, and Little Knife challenged the marshal’s suspicious request to bombard a marked district.
• The marshal reported that giant monsters had smashed more than twenty Hive City walls, allowing millions of Barbarians to enter and attack its inhabitants.
• Li Qinwu ordered fighters to target the monsters and breaches with precision-guided rockets, and sent ground troops to stop Barbarians from entering the city.
• Rudosen proposed sending the Fat Pig Regiment to defend a breach, and Li Qinwu agreed that they should hold it with machine guns.

Li Qinwu’s forces landed in Hive City and used overwhelming firepower to hold back the Barbarian assault. The Beast Priests summoned a storm that scattered the Shuttles, and Li Qinwu recognized it as a Warp Storm.

• Fury Interceptors launched precision-guided rockets at behemoths while Shuttles carried troops to the city.
• Power-armored troops and Li Qinwu’s private army attacked the Barbarians, sealing the wall breaches and streets with heavy firepower.
• A Barbarian scout warned the Beast Priests that powerful reinforcements had arrived, and they agreed to raise a storm to isolate them.
• Li Qinwu descended with the second wave of troops and headed for the area the PDF marshal had marked for bombardment.
• White mist swept across Hive City, obscuring the Shuttles, and Li Qinwu identified the storm as a Warp Storm.

Li Qinwu faced a Warp Storm, lost contact with his scattered forces, and used psychic powers to extract the truth from the PDF marshal. He learned that the Imperial Cult had accidentally taught the Savage World's Barbarians to farm, threatening the planet's value as a source of recruits, and the chapter left him with the explanation of the Cult's attempts to cover up the mistake.

• A Warp Storm filled the area with white fog, disrupted communications, and scattered Li Qinwu's forces.
• Li Qinwu threatened the PDF marshal for answers, but an explosion erupted near the site where the giant monsters had rampaged.
• Li Qinwu used a Soul Search Technique on the marshal, killing him and reading his memories.
• The memories revealed that the Barbarians had traded animal goods with the Imperium for thousands of years while remaining hunters and gatherers.
• Imperial Cult personnel accidentally gave the Barbarians unsterilized millet, and years later most of them had begun farming.
• The planetary bishop and the Imperial Cult tried to undo the change because farming threatened the Savage World's value as a recruitment world.

Li Qinwu learned that the planetary bishop had poisoned the Barbarians with Agent Orange, triggering a devastating war and a Beast God sacrifice that unleashed giant beasts against the Hive City. After uncovering the PDF marshal’s role in destroying the chemical plant, Li Qinwu executed him and ordered the planet’s powerful figures condemned, then focused on stopping the Warp Storm before it distorted time further.

• The planetary bishop secretly sprayed Agent Orange on the Barbarians’ fields and deceived traders into spreading it as fertilizer, causing crop failures, illness, miscarriages, and birth defects.
• The Barbarians sought answers from the Hive City, but the PDF fired on them, sparking a war that killed hundreds of thousands and left the population increasingly devastated by the poison.
• Beast Priests promised that sacrificing souls to their Beast God would grant the power to breach the city, and the sacrifice summoned nearly a hundred giant beasts that smashed through its walls.
• The giant beasts attacked the chemical plant, while the PDF marshal arranged to destroy it and conceal the bishop’s crimes; Li Qinwu’s precision rockets killed the beasts but left the plant intact.
• Li Qinwu crushed the PDF marshal’s head, ordered White Phosphorus Execution for the planet’s powerful leaders, and realized that the Warp Storm was making time pass erratically.

Li Qinwu crossed the Warp-distorted space around the city and found the Formation Eye generating the White Fog, then set out to destroy it. He encountered Barbarians trapped in a warped death zone and realized the turbulence might also be distorting time for his scattered troops.

• Li Qinwu used Warp Vision to navigate the turbulence, reached a breach in the city wall, and reunited with Rudosen and his troops.
• Li Qinwu told Rudosen to hold the breach while he went to the Barbarians’ camp to shut down the Formation Eye.
• Li Qinwu spotted the Formation Eye beyond the walls and crossed the warped terrain toward it.
• Li Qinwu encountered more than a hundred Barbarians whose attacks and movements were trapped by a region where space had been distorted.
• Li Qinwu realized the Warp Turbulence might make time pass differently for his scattered troops and hurried to stop the Formation Eye.

Li Qinwu disguised himself as a Beast Priest and infiltrated the Barbarian camp, where he saw the lethal effects of the White Fog’s Time Islands. He reached the Warp Formation Eye and found several dozen Beast Priests maintaining the Warp Storm.

• Li Qinwu slaughtered a group of Barbarians, then used Psychic Shapeshifting to disguise himself in reptile hides as a Beast Priest.
• Li Qinwu entered the Barbarian camp and saw more than a thousand Barbarians trapped in a Time Island, where accelerated time had reduced them to bones.
• When the Barbarians mistook Li Qinwu for a monster, he claimed to be a Beast Priest and said he had come to assess the White Fog’s harm.
• Li Qinwu told the Barbarians to keep others away from the deadly Time Island and continued deeper into the camp.
• Li Qinwu reached the Formation Eye, where several dozen Beast Priests danced around a magic formation and channeled Psychic Power to maintain the Warp Storm.

Li Qinwu infiltrated the Beast God priests maintaining a Warp Storm and sabotaged their Formation Eye, causing a Warp Minor God to appear. The Beast God’s countless eyes settled on Li Qinwu, who faced its overwhelming pressure.

• Li Qinwu disguised himself as a crocodile Beast God priest and learned the priests’ beast-persona rules from a bear-shaped priest.
• Li Qinwu took the place of an exhausted priest at the Formation Eye and discovered that the formation was fragile.
• Li Qinwu blasted the Formation Eye with Psychic Lightning, triggering a backlash that killed several Beast God priests and destabilized the formation.
• Li Qinwu revealed that he was an Inquisitor as a colossal Beast God emerged from the lightning-filled Formation Eye.
• The Beast God’s thousands of eyes settled on Li Qinwu, who felt overwhelmed by its pressure.

Li Qinwu charged the Beast God, only to be caught in midair and struck by its overwhelming psychic presence. The Beast God communicated its origins and explained that it had decided to submit to Li Qinwu rather than risk being captured by the Chaos Gods.

• Li Qinwu recognized the Beast God’s enormous true form and charged it with his Power Maul, intending to die and have a warship destroy it afterward.
• The Beast God used Warp energy to freeze Li Qinwu in midair and flooded his mind with psychic force.
• Li Qinwu stopped resisting and opened his mind, allowing him to understand the Beast God’s chaotic communication.
• The Beast God explained that human worship of beasts had brought it into existence and given it authority over animals.
• The Beast God said the Chaos Gods had begun plotting to capture or kill it, so it had decided to submit and become Li Qinwu’s dog.

The Beast God sought refuge with the God-Emperor and approached Li Qinwu, the God-Emperor’s chosen, to arrange an introduction. He gave Li Qinwu an egg containing a fragment of his divine essence, leaving Li Qinwu unsure whether the God-Emperor would accept him.

• The Beast God decided the God-Emperor could protect him from other Daemons without devouring his authority.
• After Li Qinwu’s Psychic Blast struck the Formation Eye, the Beast God recognized the golden Psychic Power and realized Li Qinwu was the God-Emperor’s chosen.
• The Beast God tore open a passage into Realspace, formed a body, and asked Li Qinwu to help him meet the God-Emperor.
• Li Qinwu demanded a gift, so the Beast God laid an egg containing a small portion of his divine essence and shrank from over sixty meters tall to just over twenty.
• Li Qinwu accepted the egg but wondered whether the God-Emperor would agree to meet or accept the Beast God.