Recaps

As the Universe watched Azure Star’s Instance challenge, its people rallied behind Colonel Kaza despite alien civilizations predicting failure. Kaza led two million Challengers into the Instance, determined to prove he should be Azure Star’s Civilization Guide.

• Alien civilizations mocked Azure Star’s chances in the livestream, and Azure Star’s people answered with boasts about Lin Ye and support for Kaza.
• Lin Ye and the regional leaders watched the exchange, and Lin Ye urged the Challengers to observe and learn.
• Kaza addressed his people in Libya Settlement, claiming he could have defeated the Firmament and was better suited than Lin Ye to guide Azure Star.
• Two million Challengers shouted slogans in support of Kaza as the countdown ended.
• A beam of light transported Kaza and the two million Challengers into the Instance.

Kaza and two million challengers entered the Tree Spirit Abyss Instance and discovered that their headquarters was on Seed Star 1, a satellite in an enormous interstellar battlefield. As the designated commander, Kaza faced the challengers’ doubts about the scale of the mission and urged them to believe they could win.

• Kaza arrived at the Green Leaf Military Command Center, a headquarters built into a giant tree, alongside the other two million challengers.
• Kaza and the challengers emerged into an unfamiliar jungle filled with colossal tree-built structures and alien wildlife.
• Divine Firmament named Kaza the Instance commander and explained that the challengers and assigned NPCs were under his command.
• Divine Firmament revealed a map of Tree Spirit Planet and its five satellites, identifying Seed Star 1 as the challengers’ Spawn Point.
• Divine Firmament explained that the Instance was designed for 50 million challengers across five satellites, but the two million available had all been assigned to Seed Star 1.
• The Libya Settlement challengers feared they could not handle an interstellar-scale battle, so Kaza rebuked them and insisted they could defeat the advanced civilizations.

Divine Firmament introduced Tree Spirit Prime Star’s vast population, layered zones, and defenses before announcing a mission to capture one zone’s Plant Neural Network Command Center within 240 hours. Kaza and the other Challengers were alarmed by the challenge as a countdown began and the planet prepared to attack Seed Star 1.

• Divine Firmament showed the Challengers Tree Spirit Prime Star and explained its Spirit Root Trees, Stellar Embryo, Tree Spirit People, and five overlapping zones.
• Kaza interrupted the lengthy explanation and demanded that Divine Firmament state the Instance mission.
• Divine Firmament announced that the Challengers had to breach one zone’s Plant Neural Network Command Center within 240 hours, with rewards increasing for deeper zones and a 100,000 Star Yuan penalty for failure.
• Divine Firmament warned that Tree Spirit Prime Star would detect and attack Seed Star 1 when the mission began, and granted the Challengers 12 hours to prepare.
• The Libya Gathering Place Challengers panicked over the Instance’s complexity, the planet’s 40 billion inhabitants, and their lack of spaceships to reach it.

Kaza urged the Challengers to trust his preparations and gather weapons for the Instance, despite the severe penalty for failure and the Green Vine Civilization’s formidable Tree Spirit Prime Star. On Azure Star, Long Yuan and the other Federation leaders studied the planet’s scale and layered structure, recognizing the challenge ahead.

• The Challengers realized that failing the Instance would cost each of them 100,000 Star Yuan, and spectators mocked their unprepared civilization before leaving the livestream.
• Kaza reassured his followers that he had brought weapons and a space fleet comparable to Lin Ye’s, and ordered everyone to prepare defenses on Seed Star 1.
• The Challengers regained confidence and began gathering weapons as they prepared for Tree Spirit Prime Star’s attack.
• On Azure Star, Divine Firmament’s briefing revealed that Tree Spirit Prime Star was larger than Earth Online and had a complex, layered structure with vast habitable space.
• Long Yuan told Commander Lin that the Green Vine Civilization and its Tree Spirit Abyss Instance were far more formidable than expected.

Lin Ye reassured Azure Star’s leaders that the Green Vine Civilization’s impressive Instance concealed a weakness: it focused on exploiting its own planet and had little capacity for interstellar expansion. He planned to use Kaza’s challenge to assess the civilization before drawing it into his own Instance.

• Fulangche and Xi'er studied the Green Vine Civilization’s five-layered map and worried that Azure Star might not be able to defeat it.
• The regional leaders realized Lin Ye had rushed to teach them technology and improve their Instances because their Exemption Authority would expire in a month.
• Lin Ye explained that the Green Vine Civilization had developed inward, exhausting its planet’s resources while neglecting interstellar colonization, and said he was confident he could defeat it.
• Lin Ye told the leaders that Kaza’s group carried little Star Yuan, so their defeat would not harm Azure Star, and joked that they were an ideal suicide squad.
• Lin Ye planned to use Kaza’s challenge to gauge the Green Vine Civilization’s strength, then make it the first civilization he pulled into his own Instance.

Kaza assembled a vast army of weapons that closely resembled Lin Ye’s advanced military technology, surprising viewers who doubted his abilities. He ordered the forces deployed around Greenleaf Military Base to face the first attack from Tree Spirit Prime Star.

• George and others questioned whether Kaza had really developed weapons and technology comparable to Lin Ye’s, while Xi’er dismissed the claim.
• The conference discussed Kaza’s history of inflating his ranking and swindling other settlements for their technology.
• Lin Ye dismissed Kaza as weak and told the Federation meeting to keep watching the Instance.
• After twelve hours, Kaza reviewed the enormous arsenal gathered outside Greenleaf Military Base on Seed Star 1.
• A subordinate reported hundreds of thousands of fighters, millions of tanks and troops, and ten Stellar-Class Nuclear Bombs.
• Kaza ordered the forces deployed around the base as spectators noticed their equipment closely resembled Lin Ye’s designs.

Kaza’s futuristic arsenal and claim that he possessed ten Stellar-Class Nuclear Bombs stunned spectators and convinced some that he could threaten the Tree Spirit Civilization. When his subordinate asked how they would reach Tree Spirit Prime Star, Kaza claimed his invisible Quantum Ghost Spaceships were already overhead.

• Kaza’s fighters and other weapons resembled advanced technology from Lin Ye’s past Instances, and he claimed to possess ten Stellar-Class Nuclear Bombs.
• Spectators from other civilizations questioned whether Kaza was bluffing, while Azure Star viewers rallied behind him and celebrated his apparent strength.
• Kaza’s subordinate reported that preparations and equipment distribution were complete but asked where the spaceships were for the invasion of Tree Spirit Prime Star.
• Kaza pointed to the sky and said his more than ten thousand Quantum Ghost Spaceships were invisible, then chastised his subordinates for failing to see them.

The Challengers and spectators reacted with shock when Colonel Kaza revealed quantum spaceships, a technology beyond anything Lin Ye had developed. The spectators warned that a fleet of 10,000 such ships could destroy the Green Vine Civilization, which might shut down its Instance to avoid conquest.

• The Libyan Challengers recognized quantum technology from Lin Ye's earlier Earth Online battles and recalled the Quantum Legion created with Ball Lightning.
• Colonel Kaza revealed quantum-form spaceships, startling the Challengers and spectators from other civilizations.
• Spectators debated whether the spaceships were real and warned that a fleet of 10,000 could crush the Green Vine Civilization and vaporize the Tree Spirit Prime Star.
• The spectators noted that a civilization could forcibly shut down an Instance to avoid conquest, though the Divine Firmament would impose heavy penalties.

Kaza convinced the people at Greenleaf Military Base that he commanded ten thousand invisible Quantum Universe Spaceships, and they enthusiastically praised the imaginary fleet. Watching from the Azure Star Federation, Lin Ye recognized the ruse and admired Kaza’s talent for deceiving the Universe Arena.

• Kaza claimed that loyal people could see his Quantum Universe Spaceships and suggested that anyone who could not see them might be disloyal.
• One subordinate pretended to see the fleet, and others followed by describing its supposed size, weapons, and appearance.
• The people at Greenleaf Military Base applauded Kaza and shouted their support for him and Azure Star.
• Spectators from other civilizations believed Kaza might have mastered quantum technology and feared the Green Vine Civilization would be defeated.
• Lin Ye laughed at the spectacle, and Lin Dong remarked that Kaza was fooling the entire Universe Arena with one enormous lie.

Lin Ye judged Kaza's supposed quantum technology to be a bluff, but the Green Vine Civilization let the Instance mission begin. As Divine Firmament announced Tree Spirit Prime Star's powerful abilities, Kaza sneaked into Greenleaf Military Base.

• Lin Ye told Long Yuan and the other leaders that Kaza's quantum technology was fake and speculated that he hoped to scare the Green Vine Civilization into closing the Instance.
• Kaza waited anxiously as the mission countdown ended, and the Green Vine Civilization chose not to shut down the Instance.
• Divine Firmament announced that Tree Spirit Prime Star's self-defense legion would reach Seed Star 1 in one minute and attack the challengers.
• Divine Firmament listed the Tree Spirit race's special abilities, including rapid healing, plant-based transportation, regeneration after death, enhanced perception, and shape-changing defenses.
• While the challengers listened to the announcement, Kaza sneaked into Greenleaf Military Base.

As the Tree Spirit Prime Star Self-Defense Corps approached, Kaza panicked at the enemy’s powerful BUFFs and fled into Greenleaf Military Base’s sewers to save himself. The countdown ended with the Challengers in chaos after discovering their commander had vanished.

• Kaza judged the Green Vine Civilization too powerful to fight and admitted that he feared dying.
• Kaza decided to hide in the sewers, hoping to survive the Instance and reduce any Star Yuan penalty.
• Divine Firmament finished explaining the enemy BUFFs as the arrival countdown neared its end.
• The Challengers cheered and took up defensive positions, confident in Kaza and their military equipment.
• Kaza’s subordinate discovered he was missing, and the Challengers began searching for their commander.
• The countdown ended as the Tree Spirit Prime Star army approached and Greenleaf Military Base descended into confusion.

The Tree Spirit Prime Star Self-Defense Corps appeared outside Greenleaf Military Base as giant plant bases produced troops, tanks, and aircraft. The Challengers faced a force as numerous as their own and began to panic.

• The Tree Spirit Clan's growable temporary bases sprang up five kilometers from Greenleaf Military Base, and the corps completed its transfer.
• Tree Spirit warriors changed forms and organized into giant warriors, shield troops, machine-gun assault troops, and ranged spore throwers.
• Plant-based adaptive land vehicles and Greenwing aircraft poured from the bases, matching the Challengers' forces in number.
• Divine Firmament transmitted information about the plant vehicles and aircraft, which could adapt their combat states to the environment.
• The two million Challengers saw the Tree Spirit Clan's forces and began to panic.

The Tree Spirit Self-Defense Legion launched its first all-out assault on Greenleaf Military Base, and its plant shells devastated the Challengers while corrosive soil consumed their wreckage and strengthened Tree Spirit Planet. The Challengers rallied without Commander Kaza and counterattacked, but their weapons barely harmed the Tree Spirit forces as the shootout intensified.

• The Tree Spirit Legion attacked Greenleaf Military Base with pollen shells and powerful light rays, destroying Challengers' tanks and fighter jets and killing nearby Challengers.
• Divine Firmament explained that corrosive soil decomposed energy-depleted matter and sent part of it through the plant upgrade network to strengthen Tree Spirit Planet.
• The Challengers panicked and retreated, then urged each other to fight despite Commander Kaza's absence and the threat of being erased if they failed the Instance.
• The Challengers from Libya mounted a counterattack with upgraded tanks and fighter jets, charging the Tree Spirit Legion for Azure Star and their survival.
• The Tree Spirit Legion's weapons cut through the Challengers' equipment, while Challenger shells mostly failed to reach or damage the Tree Spirit forces, whose warriors healed quickly.

The Challengers’ Kaza Military Ordnance malfunctioned and self-destructed before they could damage the Tree Spirit Legion, killing hundreds of thousands of their own people. The surviving Challengers fled toward the military base as the Tree Spirit Self-Defense Legion began its one-sided slaughter, while arena spectators mocked Azure Star’s weapons.

• The Challengers’ attacks barely affected the Tree Spirit Infantry and vehicles, so they frantically pressed the controls on Kaza Military Ordnance.
• The weapons’ panels sparked, tanks exploded in succession, and fighter jets crashed or flew out of control, devastating the Challengers’ positions.
• The Challenger population fell by about 500,000, and Divine Firmament warned them against suicidal behavior.
• The surviving Challengers blamed their lack of experience operating Kaza’s weapons and fled from the remaining equipment toward the military base.
• The Tree Spirit Self-Defense Legion began slaughtering the retreating Challengers as arena spectators criticized Azure Star’s weapons as primitive and ineffective.

The Azure Star leaders realized Kaza had sent his people into battle with fake, copied weapons, while Lin Ye said the Instance had already revealed useful information. At Greenleaf Military Base, the Green Vine forces continued crushing Kaza’s army as Tree Spirit Prime Star absorbed the wreckage.

• George, Arthur, Xi'er, Fulangche, and Singh condemned Kaza after recognizing his weapons and vehicles as copied or modified versions of old Azure Star designs.
• Katerina told the leaders not to pity Kaza’s followers, while Xi'er doubted they could learn anything from the battle before it ended.
• Lin Ye said the Instance had already provided valuable information and promised to explain it after they finished watching.
• At Greenleaf Military Base, the challengers’ aircraft crashed and more than ninety percent of their weapons were destroyed in under ten minutes.
• Tree Spirit Prime Star began absorbing the wreckage from Seed Star 1 as the Tree Spirit Self-Defense Force tightened its encirclement.

The Tree Spirit warriors slaughtered the Azure Star Challengers, leaving fewer than ten thousand trapped in the tree hollow and unable to operate the Instance Command Console. The Tree Spirit Self-Defense Legion then grafted its aircraft into the Ancient Tree Spacefaring Warship, which began its final hunt for the survivors.

• The Tree Spirit warriors killed the Azure Star Challengers with corrosive saliva, crushing strength, and shotgun-like arms as the survivors' numbers rapidly fell.
• Fewer than ten thousand Challengers huddled in the military base's tree hollow and failed to activate the Quantum Universe Spaceship because only Instance commander Kaza had the required console access.
• The remaining Libyans begged Kaza to save them as fear and despair overwhelmed them.
• The Tree Spirit Self-Defense Legion's aircraft intertwined their roots and formed the Ancient Tree Spacefaring Warship.
• The Divine Firmament notified the survivors that the warship was beginning its final hunt and transmitted its basic information to their Instance Backend.

The Green Vine Civilization used its Ancient Tree Aerospace Battleship and Leaf Spirit Life-Acceleration Bomb to turn Greenleaf Military Base into a deadly jungle, killing nearly every Challenger. Kaza was discovered hiding in the sewers and begged for his life by offering to betray Azure Star and reveal information about Lin Ye.

• The Ancient Tree Aerospace Battleship fired a Leaf Spirit Life-Acceleration Bomb that transformed the trees and buildings of Greenleaf Military Base into a mass of murderous vines.
• The Tree Spirit Legion’s attack killed nearly all the Challengers, leaving Kaza as the sole survivor in the Instance.
• Tree Spirit soldiers in Floating Particle Form searched the base, found Kaza in the sewers, and dragged him outside after his sidearm exploded in his hand.
• Surrounded by the Tree Spirit Legion, Kaza begged them not to kill him and offered information about Azure Star, Lin Ye, and the Five Permanent Members Instance.
• Viewers watching the Instance livestream condemned Kaza for betraying his civilization and mocked him for expecting the Green Vine Civilization to spare him.

Kaza begged to surrender, but the Tree Spirit Planet used the Ancient Tree Aerospace Battleship’s Rooting Ritual to torture and kill him while plundering his memories. His death triggered the failure settlement, and Divine Firmament erased all two million Azure Star Challengers, leaving Azure Star’s spectators shaken by the Instance’s total wipeout.

• Kaza offered to submit to the Tree Spirit Star System, but the Ancient Tree Aerospace Battleship revealed that Tree Spirit Planet would transform him regardless.
• The Ancient Tree Aerospace Battleship rooted countless vines into Seed Star 1, bound Kaza, and subjected him to the Rooting Ritual to extract his memories before killing him.
• Divine Firmament declared the Instance challenge failed and imposed a 100,000 Star Yuan penalty on the Azure Star Challengers.
• Divine Firmament announced that all Challengers would be erased because they lacked enough Star Yuan to pay the penalty.
• Divine Firmament reported that two million people had been erased and that the Instance had a 100% erasure rate, leaving Azure Star’s spectators fearing that only Lin Ye could face the Universe Arena.

After Kaza’s disastrous defeat in the Tree Spirit Abyss exposed Azure Star to ridicule and leaked some of its information, Lin Ye reassured the regional leaders that the damage was limited. He ended the meeting by considering what Azure Star could still learn about the Green Vine Civilization before its newbie period ended.

• Alien civilizations mocked Azure Star’s zero completion and clearance rates, and argued over who would attack it after its newbie period.
• The Instance ended, and Divine Firmament reported that Azure Star had lost 15 Star Yuan, triggered a Population Red Line warning, and suffered another leak of core information.
• Lin Ye listened as the regional leaders condemned Kaza for trying to defect, then turned the meeting toward the risks of his extracted memories.
• Katerina and the regional leaders worried that the Green Vine Civilization had gained Azure Star’s secrets, but Lin Ye said Kaza knew little and had seen only outdated technology.
• Fulangche asked whether enemies could deduce Lin Ye’s later weapons from his earlier Instances, and Lin Ye argued that surface knowledge was not enough to counter his technology.
• Xi’er pointed out that Kaza’s defective weapons and limited exploration revealed little about the Tree Spirit Abyss, and Lin Ye agreed while saying the Instance still offered some clues.

Lin Ye lectured the regional heads on how to design Instances for the Universe Arena, using the Tree Spirit Abyss and Heart of the Swarm to explain planetary scale, resource use, and distinctive technological themes. He left them with a closer look at the Tree Spirit Civilization’s weakness: its inward focus and limited ability to travel beyond its planetary network.

• Lin Ye explained that Arena-ready Instances needed planetary-scale maps, fully utilized resources, and a clear technological focus.
• Lin Ye compared the plant-centered Tree Spirit Abyss with the bioengineered Heart of the Swarm, describing their different strengths and battle strategies.
• Xi'er concluded that an Instance’s defining characteristics should shape its design and generate consistent advantages, and Lin Ye affirmed the importance of developing distinct specialties.
• Lin Ye described how he had assigned different research paths to the regional heads, including artificial intelligence for Long Yuan and futurist weapons for Xi'er.
• Lin Ye argued that the Tree Spirit Civilization lacked long-range interstellar travel and relied too heavily on its limited plant neural network to move between planets.

Lin Ye explained the weaknesses of the Green Vine Civilization’s transforming weapons and reassured Azure Star’s regional heads that he would lead their first Universe Arena battle against it. He urged them to build planet-scale Instances by copying Earth Online as a template, and they left the meeting ready to begin work.

• Lin Ye argued that the Green Vine Civilization’s transforming weapons were compromises rather than versatile solutions, and that their slow defeat of Kaza showed they could not strike a planet directly.
• Lin Ye analyzed the Tree Spirit Abyss Instance for the regional heads, who praised his insight into its underlying rules.
• Lin Ye announced that Azure Star would enter the Universe Arena after the regional heads’ one-month novice period, with the Green Vine Civilization as their tentative first target.
• Katerina admitted that the regional heads were struggling to design planet-scale Instances, and Lin Ye told them to use Earth Online as a template instead of starting from scratch.
• Xi'er and Fulangche recognized that copying and modifying certified Instances would help them create their own worlds faster, and the regional heads vowed to begin work immediately.

Lin Ye assigned Katerina to study other civilizations' Instances and Singh to gather points and establish a planet-wide currency. He then tasked Brahma with creating a unified faith to secure Azure Star's loyalty to the Federation.

• Lin Ye told Katerina to organize recordings and records of every civilization's Instance so he could study them before opening his own.
• Lin Ye ordered Singh to collect settlement points, find overlooked reserves, and introduce a Federation-controlled currency for daily life.
• Singh agreed to create a currency using rare metals and encourage residents to exchange their points for it.
• Lin Ye told Brahma that fear of the Universe Arena would fade and asked him to unite Azure Star under a shared religious faith.
• Brahma knelt before Lin Ye and promised to make all of Azure Star submit to the Federation as part of the coming Holy War.

Lin Ye checked Kazi Star and found its population falling amid brutal infighting, though it had contributed Star Yuan to Azure Star. He then returned to his Solar System Instance, where construction and military preparations had advanced substantially.

• Lin Ye checked Kazi Star's status and saw that its population had fallen by 100 million while its number of Instances had increased by 100 million.
• Lin Ye noted that Kazi Star's infighting was likely to stabilize and that the planet had contributed 1,000 Star Yuan to Azure Star.
• Lin Ye entered the Creation Space and saw the Solar System Instance taking shape around its eight planets.
• Lin Ye received updates that 10,000 Space Marines and 10 Psionics had been generated, and Ding Chang had awakened as a Psionic and become the star system's emperor.
• Lin Ye learned that planetary modifications, orbital outposts, and Earth's emergency response platform were progressing, while the Dyson Sphere and Star Destroyer designs neared completion.

Lin Ye saw that Alice had rapidly advanced the Solar System Online projects, including a growing Space Marine force and a nearly completed Star Destroyer. He reviewed the ship’s blueprint and specifications, leaving the story with its construction at 95% completion and Alice’s promise that it could overwhelm enemies in the Universe Arena.

• Lin Ye found more than ten thousand modified Space Marines patrolling the Arctic, while a notification reported that 30,000 new Space Marines were being generated each day.
• Lin Ye saw that Old Ding had become the supreme emperor of Solar System Online after the Firmament War.
• Lin Ye discovered that the Star Destroyer had reached 95% completion and credited Alice for its rapid progress.
• Alice explained that she had used hundreds and thousands of small AIs to help with calculations and showed Lin Ye the latest Star Destroyer blueprint.
• Lin Ye examined the 1,000-meter Star Destroyer's specifications and learned that it could not yet achieve standard sublight flight.

Lin Ye learned that Alice had completed designs for a Star Destroyer Fleet and ordered her to build at least fifty ships, naming the first Blue Star. As he considered how to prepare for future battles and protect his Instance from imitation, he decided to explore beyond the Solar System and create additional star systems, beginning with one inspired by The Three-Body Problem.

• Alice revealed that she had designed an entire Star Destroyer Fleet rather than a single ship and estimated that at least fifty Star Destroyers would make a fleet.
• Lin Ye ordered Alice to begin building the fleet and named its first Star Destroyer Blue Star.
• Lin Ye considered whether to defend his Instance or attack others and concluded that defending would require less effort and better protect the other Challengers.
• Lin Ye considered how other civilizations might study and copy Solar System Online, and weighed creating a separate Instance or expanding the information in the existing one.
• Lin Ye realized he could explore beyond the Solar System and create additional star systems to combine or use as separate Instances, and chose The Three-Body Problem as his inspiration.