Chapter Summaries

Xi Yan dismissed the Holy Guards’ objections and prepared the Interstellar Human Military Junta’s psionic ascension with [Teacher]. On New Year’s Day, Cosmic Era 2281, the empire began a ritual intended to unite its people and erase the Shroud’s marks on reality.

• Xi Yan told the Holy Guards that his fleets made him unafraid of them, and the meeting ended with the Holy Guards left angry and powerless.
• The Sacred Guard Empress rejected awakening the declining Lost Empire without a sufficient shock, while its members chose to wait and see whether Xi Yan’s empire would weaken.
• [Teacher] led the empire’s awakened Psionics Users in rituals around the Golden Throne to prepare for a Great Awakening.
• Xi Yan declared a nationwide holiday and arranged for Psionics Users to guide people gathered at colony assembly sites.
• On New Year’s Day, Cosmic Era 2281, the Interstellar Human Military Junta began its psionic ascension amid prayers from countless Psionics Users.

Xi Yan led the Great Awakening, transforming the empire’s citizens into psionic users and gathering their power on the Golden Throne. He became the Most Holy Emperor, declared the Sea of Stars Most Holy Human Empire, and used the power to reject and erase the Shroud’s contracts and marks.

• Xi Yan meditated on his empire as [Teacher] released Zro over the Ring World, and its citizens awakened their psionic abilities.
• Psionic power spread through the empire and beyond, linking hundreds of billions of minds in a chorus of loyalty to Xi Yan.
• The citizens’ gathered power dissolved Xi Yan’s frail body and formed a radiant psionic avatar, allowing him to rise from the Golden Throne.
• Xi Yan crowned himself Most Holy Emperor of the Sea of Stars Most Holy Human Empire and swore to protect humanity and pursue its glory.
• Xi Yan rejected the Shroud’s contracts on behalf of intelligent beings, and his power erased the Shroud’s marks from the affected planets.

After the Empire completed psionics ascension, Xi Yan was crowned Most Holy Emperor and directed the Academy of Sciences toward nanotech and modularity ascension. The chapter ended with scientists discovering that Nanites could synthesize living metal, offering a way to combine the two research paths.

• The Empire awakened psionic power in every human, shifted largely to telepathic communication, and changed its name to the Sea of Stars Most Holy Human Empire as Xi Yan was crowned Most Holy Emperor.
• The citizens gained machine spirits and Consciousness Transfer Technology, allowing them to exist independently of their bodies and switch between mechanical, living metal, Nanite, and psionic forms.
• Xi Yan visited the Academy of Sciences and planned to use the repaired Cybrex Alpha Ring World’s Alpha and Beta sections for research and its other two sections for power generation.
• Xi Yan ordered scientists to pursue nanotech ascension and modularity ascension, while forbidding them from obsessing over the origins of psionic power.
• Scientists determined that Nanites could synthesize living metal, making it possible to combine nanotech ascension with modularity ascension.

Xi Yan planned the Empire’s nanotech and modular ascension while welcoming Ailiveer and Veronica into their new mechanical bodies. After the Empire completed psionic ascension, [Teacher] revealed his robotic form and identified himself as Nameless Apostasy-er.

• Xi Yan planned to use the Dessanu Concordat’s nanotechnology to give the Empire both nanotech and modular ascension.
• Xi Yan welcomed Ailiveer and Veronica after they awakened and transferred their consciousnesses into mechanical bodies.
• Ailiveer and Veronica agreed to support Xi Yan and serve the Empire in roles suited to them.
• [Teacher] explained that the Empire’s successful psionic ascension had completed his mission and freed him from the Shroudwalker Enclave’s rules.
• [Teacher] shed his robes, revealed his robotic body, and introduced himself as Nameless Apostasy-er.

Xi Yan recognized [Teacher]’s former name, [Nameless Apostasy-er], and recalled the forgotten history of Zarqlan’s war against the Synthetic Queen, Cetana. [Teacher] argued that mortal memories distorted and forgot the past, while machine-preserved data endured.

• Xi Yan recalled how Zarqlan discovered Cetana planned to erase all consciousness and led the resistance against her.
• Zarqlan bargained with the Shaper of Clay, gained power to defeat Cetana, and sealed her on the Rixian Seed Empire’s Homeworld before dying.
• Zarqlan’s followers destroyed Cetana’s remaining fleets and preserved his teachings, while the wider Sea of Stars gradually forgot her crisis.
• Xi Yan connected [Teacher]’s former name, [Nameless Apostasy-er], to Zarqlan’s followers and questioned how their history could survive for a million years.
• [Teacher] said mortal history was forgotten and distorted, while eternal machine data did not lie, and Xi Yan urged him to continue.

[Teacher] revealed that he was the Nameless Apostate, a Zarqlan follower who became a Synth to continue fighting the Synthetic Queen Cetana. He joined Xi Yan’s empire to help defeat her, while hinting that Xi Yan’s identity was connected to deeper secrets of the universe.

• [Teacher] recounted how he abandoned his flesh, endured centuries in dormancy, and later awakened psionic powers in the Shroudwalker Enclave.
• [Teacher] said he had fought the Shroud and now intended to defeat Cetana, and Xi Yan agreed to face the crisis with him.
• [Teacher] explained that he had chosen Xi Yan because he and his people bore secrets tied to the universe, time, and an ancient existence.
• [Teacher] said he had never met Zarqlan but had dreamed of him, and he and the Sky Bishop spoke together about following Zarqlan’s path.
• Xi Yan welcomed [Teacher] into the Sea of Stars Most Holy Human Empire, and [Teacher] told the Sky Bishop to assist Xi Yan because he was vital to the universe.

Xi Yan found records of a lost alien artifact called the Recording Instrument and began its event chain, sending a Science Ship to a hidden star system. He also summoned Hosgar of Endless Flames to pursue the Rendclaw Dragon, while the expedition discovered a ruined Ecumenopolis and prepared to search it.

• Xi Yan found a report explaining that an alien crew had died trying to recover the Recording Instrument from a group called the Rat Thieves.
• Xi Yan began the Recording Instrument Event Chain and decided to call Hosgar of Endless Flames to pursue the Rendclaw Dragon.
• Hosgar grew furious when Xi Yan told her about the Rendclaw Dragon and immediately set out to join the fleet.
• The Science Ship followed the wreck's logs through a concealed Hyperlane to an undiscovered star system.
• The Science Ship found a habitable planet covered in ruined settlement structures, and archaeologists prepared to search for the Recording Instrument.

Xi Yan’s archaeologists recovered the Recording Instrument, a replicator hidden in the ruins of a mouse civilization, while uncovering evidence that a Riftclaw Dragon had attacked the inhabitants. The dragon emerged to seize the artifact, but the Empire’s fleet and Guardian Celestial Dragon stood ready to fight it.

• With the Curators’ records and support, Xi Yan’s team excavated the Skyfaring Mouse Thieves site and learned that the mice had died defending their Recording Instrument.
• The archaeologists found the Recording Instrument in a concealed chamber beneath the Empress Motel and identified it as a device that endlessly duplicated ancient artifacts.
• After the team withdrew with the artifact, the Rendclaw Dragon emerged from subspace and tried to seize their spacecraft.
• The dragon claimed the Recording Instrument and threatened the fleet, but the Celestial Dragon appeared and struck it with her tail.

The Celestial Dragon reunited with her mate, the Rendclaw Dragon, and brought her back to the Empire after Xi Yan recovered the Recording Instrument. Xi Yan appointed Rendclaw the Empire’s Sentinel Dragon, and she happily accepted the post guarding a storage planet.

• The Celestial Dragon defeated the Rendclaw Dragon, revealed her identity as Hosgar, and persuaded her to return with the fleet.
• Xi Yan obtained the Recording Instrument, and the Celestial Dragon brought Rendclaw and the L-Dragon back toward the Empire.
• Hosgar and Rendclaw discussed their reunion and the Empire’s rise as the three dragons traveled through a Hyperlane.
• The dragons emerged near the Ring World, where Xi Yan welcomed Rendclaw and offered her the title of Sentinel Dragon.
• Xi Yan assigned Rendclaw to guard a storage planet, and she gladly joined the Empire.

At twenty, Caedhes was invited by Xi Yan to leave the Empire and investigate his origins aboard a Science Ship. He accepted the mission to explore the Wedge and uncover the secrets of his ancestors, with humanity’s support.

• Caedhes worked with Synth scientists on the Colossus superwarship project at the Titan Shipyard.
• Xi Yan summoned Caedhes to the Golden Throne and told him it was time to venture out into the world.
• Xi Yan tasked Caedhes with piloting a Science Ship to investigate the Wedge and uncover his origins.
• Caedhes accepted the mission, and Xi Yan offered him Synth companions and the support of humanity.

Caedhes received Xi Yan’s support to investigate visions triggered by the Wedge, and set out aboard the Titan research vessel Distant Stars. In the Tapru system, he confronted an unregistered independent scientist and considered what Xi Yan would do.

• Xi Yan authorized Caedhes to assemble a research team and study the Wedge, which showed Caedhes visions when he touched it.
• Caedhes and the Academy of Sciences used star patterns from the visions to identify a system in former Minamar Specialized Industries territory.
• Xi Yan assigned Caedhes the heavily equipped Titan research vessel Distant Stars and a squad of Space Marines.
• Caedhes followed his visions to a jungle-covered planet in the Tapru system, where Distant Stars detected an unregistered foreign Science Ship.
• The lone scientist aboard the Sanctuary dome ship apologized and asked to finish its research, while Caedhes wondered how Xi Yan would handle the encounter.

Caedhes made contact with the plant-based scientist Aeshlin, who explained her interest in signals connected to him and proposed a joint investigation. After discussing how they valued life, Aeshlin launched a sample toward Caedhes's ship, and Xi Yan ordered him to recruit her.

• Caedhes greeted Aeshlin over video and learned she was a solitary scientist aboard a Science Ship that housed a botanical garden.
• Aeshlin described how she had tracked similar signals near the Dugor System and said she wanted only to research them.
• Caedhes reported Aeshlin to the Academy of Sciences and offered to explore the signals with her.
• Aeshlin asked Caedhes how he viewed life, and he and a Space Marine captain explained the Empire's view of citizens and sacrifice.
• Aeshlin revealed her research into Space Genesis Studies and launched a sample toward Caedhes's ship as a test.
• Xi Yan told Caedhes that Aeshlin was an incredibly talented scientist and ordered him to recruit her.

Aeshlin explained how her space genesis studies used Terraforming Cores to turn barren planets into habitable worlds, and Caedhes’s researchers analyzed the gifted seed. The chapter ended with Aeshlin asking whether they would take another person’s life to escape death.

• Aeshlin described how Terraforming Cores could transform almost any planet into a Gaia Planet and said her gift was the first step toward that goal.
• Caedhes decided to keep Aeshlin in the Empire while postponing his search for the secrets of his origins.
• Caedhes took Aeshlin’s frozen seed to the Distant Stars, where researchers found that it could survive on barren worlds, produce water, break rock into soil, and form an ecosystem.
• The researchers learned that the seed was still immature but that studying it could advance the Empire’s biological research.
• Aeshlin praised Caedhes and the researchers, then asked whether they would take someone else’s life to escape death.

Caedhes and the crew convinced Aeshlin that the Empire was suited to study space genesis, and she joined as an officially appointed research leader. They investigated a signal on a tropical planet, where Caedhes found another relic fragment that fused with the pieces he already had and strengthened their effect.

• Caedhes and the crew said they would not evade death and would kill for the Empire's interests, prompting Aeshlin to approve them as successors to space genesis research.
• Caedhes invited Aeshlin to lead the Empire's research, and Xi Yan approved her appointment immediately.
• Caedhes authorized Aeshlin to investigate the signal on the tropical planet in the Tapru Star System alongside the crew.
• Aboard the Distant Stars, Caedhes and a squad of Space Marines landed through a crater blasted into the planet's surface and explored its jungle.
• Caedhes found an overgrown ruin and a relic fragment, which showed him a vision of a lush world and a starmap with four disconnected star systems.
• Caedhes placed the fragment with his existing relic pieces, and they fused together as the relic's effect grew stronger.

Caedhes recovered the final fragments of the Wedge and learned it could create stable Wormholes by collapsing two points in space. He prepared to open one in the Empire's Homeworld System, hoping it would lead to the Vagros homeworld.

• Caedhes followed the Wedge's call to a half-molten planet in the Wapobo Star System and recovered a fragment from an ancient mineral-processing facility.
• After the fragments fused, Caedhes rested while the Titan research vessel found a graveyard of ancient ships in the Ifushi Star System.
• Caedhes recovered another fragment from a Stellar Base, and its vision showed a Fleet Commander opening a Wormhole with an object like the Relic.
• The fragments fused into the complete Wedge, which guided Caedhes toward the Empire's Homeworld for a special research project.
• At the Academy of Sciences, Caedhes discovered that the Wedge could create stable Wormholes and volunteered to open one in the Homeworld System.
• Xi Yan ordered fleets recalled and a cloaked Science Ship prepared for the attempt.

Xi Yan attended the Synaptic Lathe’s activation and watched it use the minds of a billion refugees to solve complex problems with extraordinary speed. After successful mathematical and physics tests, the project director prepared to test whether the Lathe could produce inspiration, or “transcendent logic.”

• Xi Yan learned that the Synaptic Lathe was complete and had the first billion refugees prepared as its initial occupants.
• Xi Yan attended the activation ceremony as the refugees were connected to the Synaptic Network and placed in simulated dreams.
• Xi Yan ordered the Academy of Sciences’ mathematical problem loaded into the Lathe, which solved it almost instantly and produced eleven solutions.
• The project director tested the Lathe on a physics problem based on fundamental laws, and the Lathe returned an answer while using more computing power.
• The project director announced that the next test would examine inspiration, which he called transcendent logic.

Xi Yan and the engineers tested the Synaptic Lathe, discovering that overclocking it could accelerate research by killing its human material. Xi Yan then planned to use the machine for safer compulsory service and to develop the Whisper Escort, while the Empire gathered more populations to supply it.

• The Synaptic Lathe generated transcendent logic from imported research data, and the project head demonstrated that its components could be overclocked.
• Xi Yan approved overclocking one billion components, and the Synaptic Lathe killed all one billion people while advancing Colossus Battleship research by ten percent.
• The project head ordered four hundred million more people loaded into the Lathe at a lower output, which he described as safe for their brains.
• Xi Yan planned to require every Empire citizen to serve one year in the Synaptic Lathe each decade, using illusions to protect their experience while supporting research.
• Space Marines escorted Brugan Necroids from former Great Khan colonies to the Lathe, and the engineers scanned a Lost Escort model to develop the Whisper Escort.

Xi Yan's fleet opened a wormhole to the Sercet Star System, where it defeated the drones guarding the Vagros Homeworld. Caedhes excavated the ruins and, after sitting on a throne-like machine, experienced visions that he recorded for the Academy of Sciences.

• Caedhes used the Wedge to open a wormhole, and the Titan science ship explored its far end in the Sercet Star System.
• The drones demanded the Wedge's return, but Xi Yan ordered the fleet to attack and destroy them despite their self-destruct protocols.
• Caedhes led an excavation of a ruined city on the tidally locked Vagros Homeworld, which he believed had been a communications hub.
• Caedhes discovered an underground vault with empty cryogenic pods and sat on its throne-like machine, then lost consciousness as his body convulsed.
• Caedhes woke after several hours and submitted his excavation records and visions from the Vagros Throne to the Academy of Sciences.

Caedhes uncovered the Vagros' past, recovered their memories, and chose to serve the Empire as its new Research Director-General. As his story concluded, Xi Yan noticed an archaeological report about a peculiar ruin on Earth's Tibetan Plateau.

• Caedhes sat on the Heir's Throne and received the Vagros' memories, learning how their leaders had sent him and the broken Wedge into space while preserving their brightest people in cryopods.
• Caedhes returned to the Cybrex Alpha Ring World and reported to Xi Yan that the Wedge had been repaired, though it could no longer open a stable wormhole without a target system.
• Caedhes told Xi Yan he wanted to keep serving the Empire and hoped to one day see his people's home rebuilt.
• Xi Yan appointed Caedhes Research Director-General, while Aeshlin also received a place in the Empire's scientific work.
• Xi Yan read an archaeological report describing a peculiar ruin discovered on Earth's Tibetan Plateau.

An archaeological team investigated a newly exposed temple on the Tibetan Plateau, which appeared connected to the Time Worm and humanity’s ancient beliefs. They identified its inscriptions as early Chinese writing and began translating the damaged scrolls.

• Xi Yan read a report linking strange phenomena on Earth to the final message from a Science Ship that vanished into a black hole ten years earlier.
• An archaeological team traveled to the Tibetan Plateau to investigate a temple exposed by an earthquake, while the emperor ordered constant telepathic communication and a live broadcast.
• The team descended into the damaged circular temple and found ancient symbols and a Mobius Strip emblem carved into its walls.
• Archaeologists determined that the temple dated to the Western Han and uncovered scroll fragments bearing pictorial symbols.
• A cool female voice recognized the scrolls as ancient Chinese clerical script, and the team prepared translation equipment.