Chapter Summaries

Horus died after entrusting Cawl with a crystal chip and giving his companions instructions for the future. His death shattered the chance for peace on Vigilus, as Khayon prepared the Black Legion to attack Inquisitor Katavonus and Calgar ordered Imperial forces to defend him.

• Horus gave Cawl a crystal chip and asked him to use it to create a better Imperium, then ordered Alcato, Alkhan, and Kaldia to return to Zelanis and tell Fulgrim to take his place.
• Horus entrusted the loyal warriors from Solemnace to Marius Calgar, who vowed to protect them and grant them the Ultramarines' standing.
• Horus gave the Space Marines' salute, spoke his final words, and disintegrated as Cawl and the others watched.
• Khayon ordered the Vengeful Spirit and the Black Legion fleet to aim their guns at Inquisitor Katavonus's position.
• Cawl erupted in fury at Katavonus for destroying the future Horus had hoped to build, while the Black Legion's warriors took up their weapons again.
• Calgar ordered Imperial forces to form defensive positions and protect Katavonus as the Black Legion prepared to attack.

Alcato and Imperial forces refused to protect Inquisitor Katavonus, allowing the Black Legion to reach him. Perturabo arrived before Khayon could kill the Inquisitor and crushed Katavonus, ending the confrontation.

• Alcato ordered the Imperial Fists to withdraw, while Imperial Army forces and most Space Marine Chapters let the Black Legion pass without resistance.
• Khayon and the Black Legion broke into the Inquisition fortress and seized Katavonus.
• Perturabo and his Iron Warriors teleported into the fortress and blocked Khayon from reaching Katavonus.
• Perturabo condemned Katavonus for disrupting his experiment and crushed him with a warhammer.

After the fleets departed Vigilus, Calgar reported the extraordinary events and Horus’s final message to Guilliman, who ordered Cawl to study the technology chip and decided to visit Zelanis. Months later, Guilliman’s flagship arrived in the system, putting its defenders on high alert.

• Perturabo killed Katavonus, and the Black Legion and Horus’s Dawn fleet withdrew from Vigilus.
• Calgar told Cawl to prepare a report for Guilliman, who learned that Horus had appeared, saved Vigilus, killed Abaddon, and been assassinated by Katavonus.
• Cawl showed Guilliman the technology chip and relayed Horus’s message, prompting Guilliman to doubt that Horus was truly gone.
• Guilliman ordered Calgar to continue defending Vigilus and instructed Cawl to turn the chip’s technologies into weapons.
• Guilliman learned about the young, uncorrupted Fulgrim clone on Zelanis and decided to go there.
• Several months later, Macragge's Honour arrived at Zelanis, and the system’s forces went on full alert.

Guilliman recognized young Fulgrim as his brother and appointed him Warmaster of Imperium Nihilus, claiming the Emperor had sanctioned it. After Horus’s sixth life ended, Liu Zhipeng received a fused ability and prepared to begin his seventh life.

• Guilliman met Fulgrim on Zelanis and confirmed that Horus was dead.
• Guilliman spoke privately with Fulgrim, then entrusted him with a major task for the Imperium.
• Guilliman persuaded the High Lords of Terra to appoint Fulgrim Warmaster of Imperium Nihilus by invoking the Emperor’s will.
• Liu Zhipeng’s sixth life ended, and he received the fused ability Golden Judgment.
• The system began Liu Zhipeng’s rebirth for his seventh life.

Liu Zhipeng was chosen as the Young King and thrown into the shrine to awaken the Avatar of Khaine, but his golden soul resisted the god’s will. He engulfed the Khaine Shard in Primordial Fire and began claiming its power.

• Liu Zhipeng woke in Craftworld Biel-Tan’s shrine, restrained by four Howling Banshees and dressed for the Young King’s sacrifice.
• The Farseer said Biel-Tan was near destruction and ordered the Banshees to send Asuriel into the Avatar of Khaine’s shrine.
• The Avatar’s will attacked Liu Zhipeng’s soul, but found a golden fire shaped by his six reincarnations.
• Liu Zhipeng bound Khaine’s will with Primordial Fire and declared that he wanted the god’s power rather than his rage.
• Liu Zhipeng’s golden fire erupted and swallowed the Khaine Shard.

Liu Zhipeng emerged as a golden, transformed Avatar of Khaine and used his power to rally Biel-Tan’s terrified Aeldari. He annihilated hundreds of Slaaneshi Daemonettes, leaving the daemons afraid of being erased completely.

• Liu Zhipeng burst out of the temple as a golden Avatar of Khaine, startling the Aeldari and daemons on Biel-Tan.
• Liu Zhipeng suppressed Khaine’s bloodlust and used Primordial Fire to replace the Aeldari’s despair with courage.
• Liu Zhipeng promised to protect the Aeldari and insulted Slaanesh, prompting an exalted Daemonette to send hundreds of Daemonettes against him.
• Liu Zhipeng swept the End of Lament through the Daemonettes, and its Golden Judgment erased hundreds of them from existence.
• The surviving Slaaneshi Daemons halted in fear after witnessing the Daemonettes’ complete annihilation.

Liu Zhipeng used the Primordial Fire to destroy Slaanesh’s daemons and strengthen the Aeldari defending Biel-Tan. As Vyll Sla unleashed Slaanesh’s domain, he awakened the Craftworld’s ancient dead, who emerged in golden flames to join the fight.

• Liu Zhipeng slaughtered the daemons with Golden Judgment while the Primordial Fire consumed their energy and amplified nearby Aeldari warriors.
• The Aeldari rallied under Liu Zhipeng’s orders and wiped out the daemons at the Temple Plaza, but the Warp Rift continued to expand.
• Vyll Sla, a powerful Keeper of Secrets known as Slaanesh’s High Courtesan, descended and unleashed Slaanesh’s domain across Biel-Tan.
• Liu Zhipeng drove his sword into Biel-Tan’s wraithbone conduits and poured the Primordial Fire into the Infinity Circuit.
• Countless ancient Aeldari warriors emerged from Biel-Tan’s wraithbone, statues, and Spirit Stones, their weapons and bodies burning with pale golden flames.

Liu Zhipeng and the golden spirits turned the battle on Biel-Tan, destroying a Chaos Titan and driving back Slaanesh’s daemons. Liu defeated and banished Vyll Sla, leaving the battlefield in the spirits’ favor.

• Hundreds of thousands of golden spirits charged Slaanesh’s daemonic tide, and Liu Zhipeng ordered them to attack.
• Liu Zhipeng caught a Chaos Titan’s Chainsword, snapped it in two, and destroyed the Titan with a single punch.
• Vyll Sla attacked Liu Zhipeng with psychic lightning, a spear, and a whip, but he deflected her attacks and fought her in the sky.
• Vyll Sla created thousands of attacking copies, but Liu Zhipeng sensed the real one and seized her by the neck.
• Liu Zhipeng pierced Vyll Sla with the End of Lament, and its golden flames banished her to the Warp.

After defeating the Slaaneshi Daemons, Liu Zhipeng defied Slaanesh and chose to remain on Biel-Tan as its protector, naming himself Ember. He began reshaping Aeldari life and organizing the surviving warriors and awakened heroic spirits to rebuild the world.

• After the Greater Daemon fell, Liu Zhipeng ordered the remaining Daemons killed and raised his middle finger at Slaanesh before the Warp Rift closed.
• With Biel-Tan and its Infinity Circuit intact, Liu Zhipeng refused to return to the temple and told the Aeldari to call him Ember.
• Liu Zhipeng told Biel-Tan's leaders that his flames would protect their souls so they no longer needed to suppress their emotions through the Paths.
• When Mavis Irissong said the awakened heroic spirits did not want to return to the Infinity Circuit, Liu Zhipeng ordered them organized into a new order called the Ember Guard.
• Liu Zhipeng ordered the Aeldari to rebuild Biel-Tan and declared that they would make the Aeldari great again.

Shadowseer Hylark and the Midnight Sorrow troupe arrived at Biel-Tan expecting to help fulfill Cegorach’s prophecy, but Liu Zhipeng invited them to support a new campaign instead. At a strategy meeting, Liu laid out plans to unite the Aeldari and seek help from the Imperium, prompting outrage from Biel-Tan’s leaders.

• Shadowseer Hylark arrived with the Midnight Sorrow troupe and found Biel-Tan thriving under Liu Zhipeng’s leadership rather than devastated as prophecy had predicted.
• Liu told Hylark he wanted Cegorach to rewrite the script as an Aeldari counterattack against Slaanesh, and Hylark agreed that her troupe would stay to watch.
• Liu gathered Biel-Tan’s leaders and said they needed to unite the Aeldari before fighting Chaos and the Tyranids.
• Liu ordered envoys to contact the other Craftworlds and proposed burning Slaanesh’s mark from the Drukhari’s souls to bring them into the alliance.
• Liu proposed calling on the Imperium of Man for backup, and Biel-Tan’s leaders erupted in disbelief and anger at cooperating with humans.

Liu Zhipeng organized Biel-Tan’s forces to help close the Eye of Terror and left to rescue Iyanden from Hive Fleet Kraken. As Iyanden’s defenses collapsed and the Avatar of Khaine was destroyed, Khaelmon ordered the Craftworld’s Heart of Fire activated as a final act of defiance.

• Liu Zhipeng announced his Galactic Cleanup plan, assigning technology and special forces to the Aeldari and logistics and armies to humans.
• Biel-Tan dispatched courier ships while Liu Zhipeng assembled hundreds of thousands of Spirit Warriors and left Mavis Irissong in charge of reconstruction.
• Liu Zhipeng led the Ember Guard through the Webway toward Iyanden, where Hive Fleet Kraken had overrun the Craftworld.
• Tyranids broke Iyanden’s defenses, and the Hive Tyrant killed the Avatar of Khaine.
• Khaelmon ordered the Heart of Fire activated, despite the Prophets’ warning that it would destroy Iyanden and its infinity circuit.

Liu Zhipeng and a vast golden force arrived on Iyanden, breaking the Tyranids’ assault and restoring the Aeldari’s will to fight. After eating the fallen Avatar of Khaine’s shard, Liu grew stronger and began battling the Hive Tyrant’s beasts.

• Golden portals opened above Iyanden, and Liu Zhipeng’s reinforcements flooded the battlefield, crushing Tyranids and dispelling the Shadow in the Warp.
• Liu Zhipeng found the remains of the Avatar of Khaine, picked up its Khaine Shard, and swallowed it.
• The shard’s power enlarged Liu Zhipeng to twelve meters and strengthened him, and he summoned End of Lament to face the Hive Tyrant.
• The Avenger Bishop rallied the Aeldari to counterattack as golden spirits fought the Tyranid swarms.
• Liu Zhipeng tripped one charging beast and smashed another’s head with his greatsword.

Liu Zhipeng fought the Hive Tyrant as Prince Yriel returned to defend Iyanden with his pirate fleet. When Yriel tried to sacrifice his life to wield the Spear of Twilight, Liu Zhipeng stopped him and prepared to kill the Tyrant himself.

• Liu Zhipeng blocked the Hive Tyrant's bone swords and punched it, breaking one of its tusks.
• Prince Yriel's pirate fleet broke through the swarm's blockade and joined Liu Zhipeng's forces in stabilizing the battle.
• Yriel saw Khaine's wreckage and resolved to draw the Spear of Twilight to kill the Hive Tyrant, despite the weapon consuming its wielder's life.
• Liu Zhipeng stopped Yriel from touching the spear and argued that sacrificing a commander was a terrible bargain.
• Liu Zhipeng placed Yriel on his shoulder and announced that he would demonstrate a decapitation strike.

Liu Zhipeng and Yriel killed the Hive Tyrant, allowing Iyanden’s defenders to defeat the Tyranid swarm. After the battle, Yriel and Iyanden’s leaders thanked Liu Zhipeng and agreed to join his operation.

• Liu Zhipeng charged through the Tyranids with Yriel on his shoulders and leaped above the wounded Hive Tyrant.
• Yriel planted a plasma-and-psychic-toxin grenade in the Hive Tyrant’s mouth, and Liu Zhipeng decapitated it after the explosion failed to kill it.
• Liu Zhipeng announced the Tyrant’s death, and Iyanden’s defenders counterattacked and fought for three days until they wiped out the remaining Tyranids.
• Yriel, Big Mek Khaelmon, and Iyanden’s Ruling Council knelt before Liu Zhipeng and thanked him for saving Iyanden.
• Liu Zhipeng asked Iyanden to join his operation alongside Biel-Tan and the humans, and Yriel agreed.

Liu Zhipeng struggled to translate Necron technology into Aeldari craft before traveling to Aethenia for a gathering of all Nine Craftworlds. He arrived with Yriel and the Ember Guard and surveyed the assembled delegations, including the shunned representatives of Altansar.

• Liu Zhipeng failed to get Biel-Tan's artisans to build the Blackstone polarity inversion matrix to his specifications, then ordered them to make a prototype.
• Mavis Irissong told Liu Zhipeng that all Nine Craftworlds had sent high-ranking delegations to a gathering on Aethenia, with Eldrad Ulthran among the first to respond.
• Liu Zhipeng summoned Yriel and the Ember Guard and prepared to attend the gathering.
• Liu Zhipeng arrived on Aethenia aboard the Khaine's Wrath with his Ember Guard, Yriel, and Mavis.
• Liu Zhipeng surveyed the delegations from Ulthwé, Saim-Hann, Alaitoc, Iyanden, and Altansar, noting the other Craftworlds' wary distance from Altansar's representatives.

Liu Zhipeng pushed the Aeldari Craftworlds toward an alliance with the Imperium, winning Eldrad’s support despite fierce opposition. Before he could reveal his proposed solution, Slaanesh’s laughter struck the gathering, and Liu Zhipeng used primordial fire to break its hold as he identified the threat.

• Liu Zhipeng welcomed Maugan Ra and soothed the Phoenix Lord’s ancient torment with golden flames.
• Liu Zhipeng argued that the Aeldari should ally with the Imperium, while several Craftworld representatives denounced the plan.
• Eldrad supported Liu Zhipeng’s proposal and said the Aeldari needed a key to close the Eye of Terror; Liu Zhipeng mentioned Ynnead and the Crone Swords.
• Slaanesh’s laughter possessed the Aeldari gathered at the conference, and Liu Zhipeng beheaded a corrupted attendant to stop the spread.
• Liu Zhipeng unleashed primordial fire to free the gathering from the laughter’s influence, then looked skyward and called the threat a pervert.

Fulgrim and Slaahe Hekbehn led a Slaaneshi assault on the Aeldari gathering, trapping the Craftworld delegates as the Webway gate became their only escape. Liu Zhipeng sent Mavis and the survivors toward the gate while he and the Ember Guard held the line, then charged the Noise Marines.

• An enormous warp rift opened over Aethenia, and Fulgrim and Slaahe Hekbehn descended with a host of Slaaneshi daemons.
• Eldrad revealed that the nearby human colony worlds had been sacrificed to open the portal, while the Aeldari delegates realized they were trapped.
• Liu Zhipeng raised a golden sanctuary and ordered Mavis to lead the delegates and Rangers through the Webway gate beneath the council platform.
• Liu Zhipeng commanded the Ember Guard to defend the Webway entrance as Mavis and the survivors fled.
• Liu Zhipeng launched himself at the Noise Marines and struck at them with his golden greatsword before they could unleash their Song of Destruction.

Liu Zhipeng fought Fulgrim and Slaahe Hekbehn alone while the Aeldari fled through the Webway gate. The gate closed with Liu Zhipeng still surrounded by daemons, leaving his fate uncertain.

• Liu Zhipeng crushed the charging Noise Marines and confronted Fulgrim, mocking him before the two began fighting.
• Fulgrim attacked Liu Zhipeng with four Daemon Swords while Slaahe Hekbehn pierced his shoulder with a spear aimed at his Psychic Core.
• Liu Zhipeng seized Slaahe's spear, burned the daemon with golden flames, and hurled the weapon at Fulgrim to gain time.
• Eldrad warned the Aeldari leaders that Liu Zhipeng was burning his soul, and Prince Yriel urged them to escape through the Webway gate.
• Mavis and the Spirit Warriors helped the Aeldari refugees withdraw as Liu Zhipeng held off the daemons.
• Liu Zhipeng ordered Mavis to close the Webway gate, and she shut it after the last artisan passed through.

Liu Zhipeng was on the verge of defeat when Skarbrand and Khorne’s forces tore into Slaanesh’s domain and attacked Slaahe. Liu used the chaos to hurl Fulgrim into Skarbrand’s axe, leaving Fulgrim badly launched across the battlefield.

• As Slaahe and Fulgrim closed in on the wounded Liu Zhipeng, a red rift opened above the battlefield and Khorne’s forces poured through.
• Skarbrand descended, recognized Slaahe as his old nemesis, and charged through the Slaaneshi daemons to attack him.
• Liu Zhipeng realized Skarbrand’s arrival had turned the battle and called Fulgrim his opponent.
• Liu threw the End of Lament at Fulgrim as a feint, then grabbed Fulgrim by his dreadlocks and swung him toward Skarbrand.
• Skarbrand struck Fulgrim out of the air, sending him through wraithbone towers and across the earth.

Liu Zhipeng helped Skarbrand kill Fulgrim, but Slaahe Hekbehn ignored the battle to pursue its divine mission to kill Khaine. As Slaahe struck at Liu Zhipeng, Skarbrand cleaved into its back.

• Skarbrand battered Fulgrim while Liu Zhipeng charged in with the End of Lament.
• Liu Zhipeng kicked Fulgrim in the face, sending him into Skarbrand's axe, then pinned him to the ground with the End of Lament.
• Liu Zhipeng urged Skarbrand to finish Fulgrim, and Skarbrand killed him with a double-axe blow.
• Skarbrand charged Slaahe Hekbehn, but Slaahe focused its power on pursuing Khaine and vanished toward Liu Zhipeng.
• Slaahe attacked Liu Zhipeng, and Skarbrand struck its back with an axe, nearly severing its spine.