Chapter Summaries

Han Mingxuan joined Russ and the Space Wolves for a feast, while Trazyn and the others drank and ate alongside them. He secretly disposed of the liquor, then let Lao Xin take his place in the eating contest, leaving Russ exhausted and Lorgar drunk.

• Russ welcomed Han Mingxuan and his companions to a Fenris feast and challenged them to drink.
• Han Mingxuan toasted Russ and joined the Space Wolves, while Sevatar was invited to drink and Lorgar was found drunk.
• Han Mingxuan kept himself only pleasantly tipsy by secretly sending the liquor into space, while Trazyn ate and drank.
• Han Mingxuan had Lao Xin take over drinking for him, then went to sleep as Lao Xin continued the contest with Russ.
• Russ eventually demanded a break and called the contest a draw, while Trazyn said Lorgar had been lying drunk on the floor.

Lorgar struggled with Horus’s increasingly intense attachment to him, while Han Mingxuan visited the Space Wolves to address their gene-seed mutations. He shaved Russ and painted a black wolf on his body to channel the Canis Helix, then urged Russ to howl.

• Lorgar realized Horus’s closeness had grown excessive, as Horus sought to fight, train, eat, and bathe with him.
• Trazyn woke Han Mingxuan and told him the Adeptus Administratum was busy, prompting him to hurry.
• Han Mingxuan told Russ he knew about the Space Wolves’ gene-seed problem and could help solve it; Russ confirmed Magnus’s warning that the treatment would be rough.
• Russ asked Han Mingxuan to help, and Han Mingxuan requested water from Fenris before taking Russ to a private room.
• Han Mingxuan had Lorgar shave Russ’s body, then painted a black wolf on him using Fenris water to control the Canis Helix.
• Han Mingxuan finished the painting and struck Russ’s back, prompting Russ to howl.

Russ discovered that the Space Wolves could survive the Wulfen transformation, then secretly shaved Bulvye and bribed him with the original Immortal's Drunkenness. Meanwhile, Horus led the Luna Wolves toward the Sixth Legion's territory to join their brothers.

• After Russ howled, a Warp vortex formed around his flagship and triggered the Wulfen transformation across the Space Wolves fleet, but every warrior survived and retained a way to control it.
• Russ sent Han Mingxuan and the others away, then knocked out Bulvye and shaved his head to hide that Russ had also been shaved.
• Russ persuaded Bulvye to keep their shared secret by offering him three tiny saucers of the original Immortal's Drunkenness.
• Aboard the Vengeful Spirit, Horus learned that the Seventeenth Legion was still within the Sixth Legion's territory and ordered the Luna Wolves fleet to advance at full speed.
• Horus asked the Four Kings Council whether they had complaints, then began telling them about spending thirty years alone with the Emperor.

After helping the Space Wolves, Han Mingxuan questioned Lorgar about Kor Phaeron and Erebus, then stayed at the feast until Horus arrived. Horus greeted Lorgar with extravagant affection, leaving Lorgar confused and aggrieved.

• Han Mingxuan asked Lorgar about Kor Phaeron and Erebus, and Lorgar admitted he struggled to accept that they had fallen to Chaos.
• Han Mingxuan told Lorgar that Erebus had stolen both his name and his fate, then learned the two were confined aboard Lorgar's flagship.
• Lorgar left the feast to attend to business, but Horus arrived looking for him before he could go.
• Horus claimed that he and Lorgar had been apart for more than ten years because their seventy-eight-hour separation had felt like three autumns.
• Russ and Trazyn resumed feasting with knowing smiles while Lorgar felt aggrieved by Horus's over-the-top greeting.

Han Mingxuan joined a Space Wolves banquet, where he recruited Sejanus and Garviel Loken from Horus's Luna Wolves for the Imperium Anti-Corruption effort. The feast ended with Lorgar passed out, and Horus carried him away to rest.

• Han Mingxuan asked Horus to introduce his Scions and met Abaddon, Sejanus, Sedirae, Aximand, Torgaddon, and Garviel Loken.
• Han Mingxuan invited Horus to contribute Scions to the Imperium Anti-Corruption effort, and Horus agreed to let him choose anyone from the XVI Legion.
• Han Mingxuan selected Sejanus and Garviel Loken, and Horus allowed both Scions to join him.
• Horus learned Han Mingxuan had solved the Space Wolves' Gene-seed mutation and the Thousand Sons' Flesh Change, and raised a toast to him.
• Lorgar passed out after the feast, and Horus took him away to rest while Russ and the others joked about the banquet.

Han Mingxuan learned that Segmentum Solar’s nobles had united against his anti-corruption campaign, forcing him to return to Terra and delaying his effort to deal with Erebus. After Lorgar woke and discovered his uncle had already left, he urged his brothers to stand up for Han Mingxuan.

• Han Mingxuan reassured the Luna Wolves about their future anti-corruption work, and Loken confidently accepted the challenge.
• Nobilia told Han Mingxuan that nearly seventy percent of Segmentum Solar’s nobles had been purged and that the remaining nobles had launched a joint petition accusing him of eliminating rivals to seize power.
• Tzeentch revealed that he had encouraged the corruption campaign to provoke the nobles and prevent Han Mingxuan from leaving Terra or killing Erebus.
• Lorgar woke to honey water Horus had left and learned Han Mingxuan had departed for Terra to answer the nobles’ petition.
• Lorgar angrily proposed contacting his brothers and standing up for Han Mingxuan.

Russ, Horus, Lorgar, and the other Primarchs rallied their Legions to support Han Mingxuan’s anti-corruption campaign. Back on Terra, Han Mingxuan prepared to face a massive petition from the nobles and asked Perturabo to build two chambers for their appeal hearing, leaving them negotiating the deadline.

• Horus and Russ agreed to gather their brothers to support Han Mingxuan, and the Primarchs sent their flagships toward Terra.
• Han Mingxuan returned to Terra and learned from the Emperor that more than seventy percent of the Segmentum Solar’s nobles had petitioned to investigate the Department of Justice.
• Han Mingxuan read the petition, which named at least two million nobles, and resolved to prepare for their appeal hearing in the Senate Grand Chamber.
• Han Mingxuan visited Perturabo at the Adeptus Mechanicus compound and asked him to build two simplified Senate Grand Chambers within seven days.
• Perturabo said seven days was not enough and asked for half a month.

Han Mingxuan and Perturabo prepared to deal with the nobles plotting against Han Mingxuan by gathering evidence and building a venue for their meeting. After completing two replicas of the Senate Grand Chamber, Perturabo rewarded his Iron Warriors Scions and arranged for the next group to take over.

• Han Mingxuan told Perturabo to finish the construction within half a month, then assured him that he had enough authority to make the nobles wait.
• At the Department of Justice, Han Mingxuan gave Curze the Noble Petition and ordered him to find evidence of each noble’s crimes within half a month.
• Perturabo asked Roboute to requisition his Scions temporarily, and Roboute agreed after Perturabo gave him a model of the Macragge's Honour.
• Perturabo told Kodomō and the Iron Warriors to build two full-scale replicas of the Senate Grand Chamber within half a month.
• The Iron Warriors completed both replicas in ten days, and Perturabo awarded them the first Builder Medals before the second batch took over.

The nobles gathered to investigate the Department of Justice, expecting to confront Han Mingxuan, but the Emperor’s family quietly assembled the Primarchs and Malcador for the meeting. The Emperor then arrived in person, leaving the nobles stunned and Han Mingxuan wondering whether secret, dramatic interventions were a family tradition.

• The Iron Warriors celebrated their departure from the Administratum, while the nobles traveled to Terra to challenge the Father of Night through the law.
• The Khan and then the other Primarchs returned to Terra, and Fulgrim and Lorgar used Roboute’s communiqué to calm the Imperial Army Command.
• Sevatar’s Evernight Judges secured the council hall as the nobles arrived for their counter-investigation of the Department of Justice.
• Han Mingxuan welcomed the nobles, who were surprised by his youthful appearance and gentle manner.
• Lion El'Jonson and the other Primarchs arrived and saluted Han Mingxuan, stunning him and the nobles.
• Malcador the Sigillite and the Emperor arrived in person, while Han Mingxuan and the Nostramo faction watched from their seats.

Han Mingxuan and the Primarchs confronted nobles who had demanded an investigation, and Curze’s judges presented evidence that warranted their execution. The Emperor intervened to pardon them, leaving Han Mingxuan and Konrad suspecting that he had a far-reaching plan.

• Horus arrived with the relevant Department of Justice records for the nobles to examine.
• Curze ordered Sevatar to have the judges present the nobles’ crimes and sentence them to death.
• The Evernight Legion distributed evidence against the accused families, leaving the nobles unable to pursue their planned Noble Duel.
• The Emperor stopped the executions and invoked his authority to pardon the nobles.
• Han Mingxuan and Konrad suspected that the Emperor’s pardon was part of a dangerous plan.

After the Emperor pardoned the corrupt nobles, Lorgar questioned his motives while Han Mingxuan tried to reassure his upset young followers. Lorgar, Mortarion, Perturabo, and Angron visited Han Mingxuan, and Angron sensed a spark of resolve beneath his disappointment.

• Han Mingxuan led the Eighth Legion out of the council chamber, and the other Primarchs left after the Emperor pardoned the nobles.
• Lorgar questioned the Emperor's decision and wondered whether the Imperial Truth and the Emperor's apparent rationality had been an act.
• Han Mingxuan's young followers asked why the Emperor had pardoned the corrupt nobles, and he told them that the Emperor's plans required difficult compromises.
• Sevatar, Shen, and Animus offered to take on any sacrifices meant for Han Mingxuan, but he reminded them that he would protect them while he could.
• Lorgar, Mortarion, Perturabo, and Angron visited Han Mingxuan, and Angron said he had sensed a spark in his uncle's heart when the pardon was announced.

Han Mingxuan gathered the Primarchs and his students, then gave Lorgar a collection of writings meant to help him understand and change the Imperium. Meanwhile, Malcador learned that the Emperor had deliberately used the crisis to set the Primarchs on this path, accepting the risk of catastrophe for humanity’s future.

• Han Mingxuan invited Renato and Nobilia to join the Primarchs, then welcomed the other Primarchs and A Fa into the meeting.
• Han Mingxuan sent Curze to retrieve a mahogany chest and warned everyone that seeing its contents would leave no way back.
• Lorgar opened the bundle marked for him and found Das Kapital and other writings Han Mingxuan had prepared for him and Magnus.
• Han Mingxuan urged the Primarchs to study the writings and use them to understand and transform the Imperium.
• In the Throne Room, Malcador confronted the Emperor over his dangerous plan to make himself fuel for the Primarchs’ Sparks, and the Emperor defended it as a gamble for humanity’s future.

After the Emperor’s corruption campaign ended without punishing the nobles, Han Mingxuan left Terra for Nostramo, confident that the changes he had set in motion would continue. Konrad Curze took up the fight on Terra, beginning a new campaign against corruption led by the Eighth Legion.

• Malcador told the Emperor that his greed had caused the campaign’s failure, and they discussed postponing Horus’s appointment as Warmaster until Corax returned.
• Han Mingxuan rejected Endymion’s attempts to console him and explained that he planned to leave Terra for Nostramo.
• Two days later, Han Mingxuan departed Terra with his student and guards, while Malcador gave him a package of appointment letters.
• Han Mingxuan told Curze that he would return after resting, and Curze promised to continue his father’s work on Terra.
• Curze ordered Shen to draft documents invoking the Extreme Punishment Act, sent Sevatar to find specialists in the XIX Legion, and asked Night Haunter to teach him his craft.

The Silent King received Trazyn’s messages describing the Necrontyr’s revival and a crisis involving the Warp, then raced back toward Solemnace. When he learned the person he sought was not in the Warp, a Keeper of Secrets offered to guide him.

• On Han Mingxuan’s ship, Trazyn raged at the Emperor’s pardon, while Han Mingxuan welcomed the chance to rest.
• At the edge of the galaxy, Szarekh received Trazyn’s recordings about souls, revived bodies, Orikan, Jia, and plans to resurrect half of Solemnace’s population.
• Szarekh heard Trazyn’s urgent message mention the Warp before it cut off, then hurried toward Solemnace while repeatedly trying to contact him.
• Believing the Warp threatened his people, Szarekh changed course and attacked daemons throughout the Warp.
• A Keeper of Secrets told Szarekh that his quarry was not in the Warp and pointed him in a direction before disappearing.

Trazyn reconnected with the Silent King, who returned to Nostramo and met Han Mingxuan to discuss the restoration of Necron souls. The Silent King accepted Han Mingxuan’s explanation of their partnership and asked where the resurrected population of Solemnace was.

• Trazyn reached the Silent King after five years without contact and told him about the Necrontyr’s new threat and Han Mingxuan’s ability to restore souls.
• Trazyn sent the Silent King Nostramo’s coordinates and informed Orikan, Jia, and Imotekh that he had returned.
• The Silent King’s ship landed at Nostramo after the local military confirmed his identity, and he met the Necrontyr leadership at Light-Bathed Square.
• Han Mingxuan invited the Silent King to his house, where he explained that restoring souls helped him retrieve his own soul from the Warp and was part of a mutually beneficial partnership.
• The Silent King asked Han Mingxuan where the half of Solemnace’s population that had been resurrected was now.

Curze established the Inquisition to enforce the Extreme Punishment Act and set strict requirements for its future members. With the law granting its officers authority across the Imperium, the Inquisition prepared to pursue corrupt nobles while Malcador wondered at Curze’s changed manner.

• Shen drafted the proposal, and Curze named the new organization the Inquisition, placing its founding members among the Council of the Long Night.
• Curze dictated strict selection requirements for Nostramo-descended and other candidates, including governing experience, legal scholarship, combat ability, and service in the Eighth Legion.
• Roboute approved the proposal, saying he would support anti-corruption measures while Sanguinius and Malcador dealt with the Emperor.
• The nobles dismissed the small Inquisition as a minor threat, but Curze arranged secret cooperation with the XIX Legion and relied on the Evernight Code’s extraterritorial enforcement authority.
• The Inquisition was established, and Malcador was surprised when Curze brusquely left to handle a case.

Inquisitors took posts across the Legions, and Aequus joined the First Legion as a Penitent Knight, where his ruthless methods exposed the tension between its public chivalry and its secrets. Meanwhile, Curze began eliminating Terra’s nobles under the Evernight Code, leaving them terrified as they realized how many crimes it condemned.

• Sandamel returned to the White Scars as their Flagship Officer, while Impetus took Sejanus’s place in the XVI Legion’s Four Kings Council.
• Aequus told Lion that Inquisitors serving in other Legions granted those Legions the Eighth Legion’s law-enforcement authority, then challenged the First Legion’s claims to embody the Chivalric Way.
• Lion welcomed Aequus, who joined a Dark Angels squad and destroyed an enemy fortress in minutes, using his psychic gift to extract intelligence from a captive’s consciousness.
• Lion gave Aequus the nobles’ joint petition and authorized him to deploy personnel against its signatories.
• Curze began a campaign to eliminate noble families on Terra, and the nobles bought copies of the Evernight Code only to discover that its provisions condemned them to death.

Curze defended his harsh punishments of corrupt nobles by invoking the Nine Laws of the Night Bat and confronting the Emperor over the mass pardon. After Curze left the Throne Room, the Emperor said Curze was acting rationally and impartially, while he and Malcador discussed Han Mingxuan’s departure and return.

• Nobles complained to the Emperor that Curze was abusing extrajudicial punishment and ignoring the Evernight Code.
• Curze argued that the mass pardon of corrupt nobles created special circumstances and declared that even the Emperor would face prison for breaking the law.
• Curze used Psychic Power to strip the Adeptus Custodes of their armor, then left the Throne Room after declaring he would enforce the law impartially.
• The complaining nobles suffered the Evernight Code’s flaying punishment, and Valdor called it heresy while the Emperor called it the law.
• The Emperor told Malcador that Curze was his most rational and impartial Scion, and they discussed Han Mingxuan’s departure and the Emperor’s confidence that he would return.

Han Mingxuan, the Silent King, and Trazyn discussed the Emperor’s plans for Han and then traveled to Solemnace to visit the Necrons awaiting resurrection. They arrived to find the settlement holding an exuberant fruit festival, and its people immediately pulled Han into the celebration.

• Han Mingxuan sneezed, prompting the Silent King to order Imotekh to purge Warp disturbances across 130,000 light-years, but Imotekh objected.
• Trazyn explained that the Imperium’s treatment of Han was part of the Emperor’s plan to build Han’s influence among mortals, and Han confirmed the Emperor had discussed an incomplete version of the plan with him.
• Han suggested visiting the Necrons awaiting resurrection at Solemnace, and the Silent King opened a Phase shifting portal to take the group there.
• The group arrived at the settlement in the Peaceful Star System and found its residents celebrating with stunts, chili peppers, and a fruit festival.
• The residents called for Trazyn to help with the festival and cheered when they saw Han.

Szarekh visited the newly awakened Necrontyr of Solemnace, whose two-month celebration convinced him to confront Trazyn about their excesses. Trazyn and Szarekh made a bet about eating habits, and Han Mingxuan helped Trazyn find a loophole before Szarekh’s resurrection.

• Szarekh watched the Necrontyr of Solemnace pursue outrageous food challenges, and Imotekh explained that the planet had become known as Thrill Planet.
• Imotekh recounted Solemnace’s awakening to Szarekh, who waited through two months of celebration before confronting Trazyn.
• Szarekh and Trazyn argued over gluttony and bet that Trazyn would fast for ten days if Szarekh ate three fixed meals a day after resurrection.
• Imotekh told Szarekh that the next resurrection slots belonged to the Sautekh Dynasty and Jia’s Otak Dynasty, so Szarekh agreed to wait.
• Han Mingxuan warned Trazyn that Szarekh could exploit the bet by making each meal last nearly eight hours, then suggested Nostramo’s ordinary daily routine would protect Trazyn.