Chapter Summaries

Chen Fan spoke with Redstone about the Administration’s investigator reassignment plan and warned her that a mass transmission could disrupt his investigation in the Bulei Galaxy. After Redstone agreed to wait in the Star Gate Universe, Chen Fan led the Four-Pointed Star Fleet through a wormhole toward Turbine while nanomachines controlled the Bulei survivors.

• Chen Fan delayed answering Redstone’s call while Yi’s drones dumped Bulei Bird corpses, and Isa suggested turning off the Holographic Interface.
• Redstone contacted Chen Fan about the investigator reassignment order, and Chen Fan claimed he had found three dangerous technologies while infiltrating a Level 7 Civilization.
• Redstone spotted a corpse drifting past Chen Fan’s window, and Chen Fan admitted that he was investigating the Bulei Galaxy.
• Chen Fan told Redstone that the Bulei Galaxy might be connected to the Broadcast Civilization and the Level 8 Loka Civilization, so she agreed to wait in the Star Gate Universe.
• Chen Fan ordered Yi to take the fleet through a wormhole to Turbine as nanomachines awakened and controlled the Bulei survivors, leaving sixty-three corpses behind.

Chen Fan’s fleet reached the outskirts of Turbine, observed its immense cluster of stars, and withdrew without alerting the Bulei Civilization. Meanwhile, Baloka and the Council Speaker reaffirmed the Zhaoyuan Civilization’s Star Sand ban and began the Hemu Plan to preserve their people and civilization.

• Chen Fan’s fleet arrived five hundred light-years from Turbine, where Chen Fan and his crew observed more than a thousand massive stars arranged around the hidden destination.
• Chen Fan ordered the Varrela back aboard the Swamp Abyss 001 Colony Ship, and the Four-Pointed Star Fleet warped away from the region.
• Aolaya begged Baloka for Star Sand, but Baloka revealed he had torn off his mutated tumors and vowed never to use Star Sand again.
• Baloka and Aolaya received a Tachyon Communication from the Council Speaker, who confirmed that the Zhaoyuan Civilization had banned Star Sand and that the Hemu Plan had begun.
• The Council Speaker explained that the Hemu Plan would send young and middle-aged Zhaoyuan People and elite personnel to other star systems to preserve their civilization’s seed.

Baloka and the Council Speaker discussed how interstellar tourists and the Bulei Alliance were obstructing the Star Sand Ban, and considered shutting down tourism during the Lamsi Empire’s invasion. Eighteen days later, Chen Fan’s fleet reached Turbine, where Port One’s controllers realized the fleet had arrived fifty days early without an escort.

• The Council Speaker told Baloka and Aolaya that Zhaoyuan citizens accepted the Star Sand Ban, but tourists still consumed Star Sand and the Bulei Alliance had questioned the restrictions.
• Baloka suggested using the Lamsi Empire’s invasion as an excuse to temporarily close tourism in the Zhaoyuan Star System.
• Eighteen days later, Chen Fan received Turbine’s signal and prepared with Gao Yuan and Isa to begin the fleet’s disguised infiltration.
• The Varrela used a High-Dimensional Jump to leave the Four-Pointed Star Fleet and conceal itself as the fleet exited curvature near Turbine.
• The Four-Pointed Star Fleet approached Turbine Port One, where Naji noticed it had no escort fleet and was arriving fifty days ahead of schedule.

Chen Fan’s fleet was stopped at Turbine Port after its arrival time and missing escort aroused suspicion. One implanted a false memory of a Ghost Fleet encounter to explain the anomalies, while the port officials began questioning the fleet.

• Naji closed Turbine Port One’s gate and demanded that the LT49373 fleet prove its identity after noticing its unusually fast journey and absent escort.
• Chen Fan learned that the port control room had questioned the fleet, and he watched Captain Jialan respond over a holographic link.
• Officer Ya Qi arrived, took charge of the inquiry, and asked Jialan for the reason behind the fleet’s arrival anomalies.
• Jialan claimed the Ghost Fleet had swept the transport and escort fleets into a wormhole, destroying the escort and dropping the transport fleet near Turbine after crossing 1,500 light-years.
• Chen Fan recognized the story as a fabricated version of his earlier Ghost Fleet encounter, and One explained that it had used nanomachines to implant the false memory.

Chen Fan brought the Zhaoyuan colony fleet into Turbine after Ya Qi confirmed its route with No. 943 Free Trade Market. As the Zhaoyuan people awakened and entered the vast Bulei facility, an alarm from Colony Ship 002 revealed that its people had vanished.

• Ya Qi learned that LT49373 had arrived without its assigned escort and confirmed with Yagao that it had encountered the Ghost Fleet, then ordered the fleet admitted to Turbine.
• Chen Fan watched the Zhaoyuan people awaken and told Anbu Er that Aolaya and Baloka had stayed behind at the Free Trade Market to take responsibility for the colony fleet’s deception.
• Anbu Er worried that Aolaya and Baloka were in danger, and Chen Fan promised to protect them as far as he could.
• The Zhaoyuan fleet entered Turbine, where more than nine thousand awakened Zhaoyuan people saw the vast steel ecosystem and disembarked.
• Someone aboard Colony Ship 002 cried that its people had disappeared.

At Turbine Port, the Bulei People discovered that nearly all the Zhaoyuan People had vanished from their colony ships, leaving only 9,746 survivors. Under Ya Qi’s questioning, Anbu Er blamed Captain Aolaya and Councilor Baloka, concealing Chen Fan’s role and leaving the surviving Zhaoyuan People to believe he had betrayed them.

• The hatches opened to reveal that only Colony Ship 001 held Zhaoyuan People, while the other ships contained empty hibernation pods; inspectors reported that the missing people had been replaced with flesh balls simulating heartbeats and body temperature.
• Ya Qi questioned Naji and learned that the fleet held only 9,746 Zhaoyuan People, prompting Naji to blame the Free Trade Market’s failed security checks.
• Ya Qi interrogated Anbu Er, who remembered Chen Fan’s warning to protect Aolaya and Baloka’s efforts by answering carefully.
• Anbu Er named Captain Aolaya and Councilor Baloka as the masterminds, drawing furious accusations of treachery from the Zhaoyuan People.
• After Naji’s guards silenced the crowd with their weapons, Anbu Er told Ya Qi that Aolaya and Baloka had opposed the labor trade plan and secretly substituted decoys for the young and middle-aged Zhaoyuan People before sending them into the colony ships.

Ya Qi questioned Anbu Er and investigated whether the Zhaoyuan Civilization had acted with the Council Chamber’s tacit approval, while Naji led the Zhaoyuan People to Turbine’s production area. The chapter ended as Chen Fan watched reptilian workers settle into seats fitted with helmets and learned that the seats were their workstations.

• Ya Qi learned that Anbu Er had been placed in a hibernation pod and sent to Turbine, then ordered Naji to take the Zhaoyuan People for examinations and registration.
• Naji noticed that the departing LT49373 Transport Fleet members behaved much like Ya Qi, but he kept his suspicions to himself and led the Zhaoyuan People onward.
• Ya Qi told her subordinates that Anbu Er’s account was unconvincing and ordered them to inform Yagao about the Zhaoyuan Civilization’s situation.
• Naji brought Chen Fan and the other Zhaoyuan People to Turbine’s enormous honeycomb-shaped production area, where Chen Fan identified its openings as separate factories.
• Chen Fan watched reptilian workers from a Level Four civilization recline in helmet-equipped seats, and Naji explained that the seats were the Zhaoyuan People’s workstations.

Chen Fan and Isa suspected that Bulei Civilization’s worker equipment might be connected to the dangerous Ascension Ritual, while Naji brought them and more than nine thousand Zhaoyuan People to their assigned factory. After the transfer chamber was disinfected and filled with Zhaoyuan Star’s air, its doors opened onto a vast enclosed city that would serve as their workplace and living area.

• Chen Fan and Isa recognized similarities between the workers’ helmets and chairs and Varrela’s Ascension Ritual, and worried that an advanced artificial intelligence might be involved.
• Gao Yuan praised the job’s six-hour workday and free food and lodging, while Isa suggested the limit might protect workers from serious harm.
• Naji explained that the Thought Synchronization Console remotely controlled Bulei machinery, and Yi noted that the Human Federation had abandoned similar technology partly because of communication delays.
• Naji assigned Chen Fan and the others to Zhaoyuan 091 Production Factory, but Anbu Er explained their unusual physiques as genetic mutations, and Naji let them proceed.
• The transfer chamber disinfected the group and adjusted its atmosphere to suit Zhaoyuan People before its doors opened onto a factory larger than Varrela’s Underground Cities.

Chen Fan realized that the apparently welcoming production factory concealed something sinister: its Zhaoyuan residents behaved like mindless workers and were punished for disrupting their assignments. After Anbu Er was shocked by a Bulei drone, a local recognized him and asked whether the Zhaoyuan Civilization had perished.

• Chen Fan scanned the factory and warned Gao Yuan and Anbu Er that its costly, carefully designed environment suggested the Bulei People expected greater returns from their enslaved workers.
• Anbu Er discovered that the local Zhaoyuan People ignored him and silently entered Thought Synchronization Consoles, then tried to stop one and speak to him.
• A Bulei aircraft warned Anbu Er to cease harassing the workers, shocked him, and ordered him to complete his work assignment.
• Chen Fan examined the injured Anbu Er as a local Zhaoyuan Person approached, recognized him as Anbu Er Lieutenant, and asked whether the Zhaoyuan Civilization had perished.

Anbu Er learned that the Zhaoyuan Civilization's migrants at the Bulei production factory had upheld a pledge to help later arrivals, despite their brutal conditions. Nikas revealed that the Thought Synchronization Console had killed many of them through brain death, leaving Chen Fan suspicious of Turbo.

• Nikas explained that the Bulei drone had come to confirm his work hours, while Anbu Er was ordered to report to a Thought Synchronization Console or face punishment.
• Nikas told Anbu Er that migrants helped each new group of Zhaoyuan People because they were bound by a rule passed down by the first migrants.
• Anbu Er recalled the Zhaoyuan Council Chamber's original promise to make the civilization rise again and asked to meet the first migrants.
• Nikas said the first migrants were all dead, devastating Anbu Er.
• Nikas revealed that the Thought Synchronization Console caused irreversible brain damage and that the second migrants had nearly vanished, while more than half of the third and fourth migrants had died.

Chen Fan investigated the Thought Synchronization Console and learned that its front-end scan could not reveal the purpose or risks of the system behind it. After promising Nikas that the Zhaoyuan Civilization would survive, Chen Fan volunteered to test a console, but its synchronization process plunged his consciousness into darkness.

• Nikas asked why Anbu Er was in Turbine, and Chen Fan explained that he was investigating secrets concealed by Turbine and the Bulei Civilization with Zhaoyuan assistance.
• Anbu Er told Nikas that Chen Fan had helped save the Zhaoyuan Civilization, and Nikas pledged that Turbine's Zhaoyuan People would help him, even at the cost of their lives.
• One found that the console appeared to be a conventional thought-reading and transmission device, but said its back end determined its true purpose and recommended a firsthand test.
• Chen Fan joined more than nine thousand Zhaoyuan People at the consoles and volunteered to undergo the thought-frequency and intensity test.
• One detected an attempt to read Chen Fan's thoughts, obtained control of the target system, and tried to interfere with the test.
• The console declared Chen Fan's thought-intensity test a failure and began Remote Thought Synchronization, plunging his consciousness into an abyss.

Chen Fan underwent Remote Thought Synchronization with other intelligent lifeforms and found himself controlling a Bulei Civilization Engineering Ship. As he installed Strong Interaction Force Armor on a vast turbine, Yi concluded that the Bulei Civilization had likely linked the participants’ brains into a giant Biological Computer.

• Chen Fan entered a consciousness space filled with orange lights and realized they represented other intelligent lifeforms.
• Chen Fan rejected Yi’s forced disengagement procedure, and the participants’ thoughts synchronized at the cost of intense pain.
• Chen Fan emerged in an Engineering Ship near an unfinished turbine surrounded by Blue Giant Stars and identified his vessel as the X17-1 Engineering Ship.
• Chen Fan instinctively controlled a Mechanical Arm to cut and attach Strong Interaction Force Armor to the turbine’s hull.
• Chen Fan asked Yi about his growing dizziness, and Yi concluded that the Bulei Civilization had probably connected the participants’ brains in parallel as a giant Biological Computer.

Chen Fan completed six hours of Thought Synchronization work and emerged with far less dizziness than the Zhaoyuan People, who remained unconscious. Yi explained that resonance damaged Consciousness Bodies, and revealed that the Zhaoyuan People endured it to make biological computers possible.

• Chen Fan's Thought Synchronization ended with a violent impact, but his Consciousness Body recovered quickly and he returned to the production factory.
• Nikas waited beside Chen Fan's console and was astonished that Chen Fan could stand with only mild dizziness.
• Chen Fan found Isa, Gao Yuan, and Anbu Er unconscious; Yi said their brains had entered a protective state after their first Thought Synchronization.
• Yi explained that Thought Synchronization forced Consciousness Bodies into resonance, risking mental damage or collapse, while repeated exposure only reduced the time spent unconscious.
• Yi said the Zhaoyuan People's work supported biological computers, which required consistent consciousness frequencies, and clarified that the technology came from a civilization affiliated with the Human Federation.

Chen Fan learned that Thought Synchronization, memory resonance, and the Bulei Civilization’s misuse of biological computers had caused severe harm to the workers. After Isa and the others woke, the group received eighteen hours of rest and headed for food as they saw how the factory controlled the Zhaoyuan People.

• Yi explained that Nus had evolved a civilization-wide consciousness network whose members shared memories and developed a collective consciousness.
• Yi said the Thought Synchronization process and resonance had damaged the workers, while the Bulei Civilization’s Engineering Ships used incompatible biological computers that inflicted further harm.
• Isa woke from the Thought Synchronization Console in pain, and Gao Yuan, Anbu Er, and the others also struggled to recover; Chen Fan had already recovered.
• Bulei Surveillance Drones announced the workers’ rest period and rationed food, then warned Nikas to eat after he had gone fourteen hours without food.
• Nikas led Chen Fan, Anbu Er, and the others toward Serving Window No. 039 as exhausted Zhaoyuan People left their consoles, and Chen Fan noticed that many consoles were idle because deaths outpaced replacements.

The Bulei Civilization discovered that Aolaya and Baloka had smuggled Zhaoyuan People aboard the Colony Ships, and Yagao ordered the fleet seized. At the Labor Exchange, Yagao rejected Baloka’s offer to take responsibility and declared that he would watch the Zhaoyuan Civilization be destroyed.

• At the edge of the Bulei Galaxy, a fleet carrying a silver-white Planetary Fortress vanished from the visible universe.
• Naji told Yagao that Aolaya and Baloka had used fake dummies to smuggle Zhaoyuan People through security inspections, and Ya Qi ordered Yagao to recover them and hold the Zhaoyuan Civilization accountable.
• Yagao learned that the Zhaoyuan Fleet was still waiting at the Free Trade Market and ordered the Self-Defense Fleet to seize it.
• Bulei Warships surrounded the Zhaoyuan Fleet, destroyed several starships, and forced the remaining ships to surrender control and travel to the Labor Exchange.
• Yagao confronted Baloka, who claimed sole responsibility and offered to repay the advance and penalties, but Yagao said the Zhaoyuan Civilization would be destroyed and made Baloka watch.

Yagao rejected Baloka’s offered compensation and ordered him to witness the Zhaoyuan Civilization’s destruction, leaving Baloka and Aolaya with little hope. At the production factory, Chen Fan discovered that the Bulei Civilization tailored each Zhaoyuan worker’s food to their physical condition, though the meals were inedible to humans.

• Yagao declared that the Bulei Civilization would destroy the Zhaoyuan Civilization and make it a warning to the galaxy.
• Baloka restrained Aolaya and led him toward their fleet, hoping there was still a way to save their civilization.
• Chen Fan and his companions entered Serving Window No. 039, where the silent Zhaoyuan workers ate rations that varied from person to person.
• Nikas explained that work performance did not affect food allocation, prompting Chen Fan to order Yi to analyze the meals alongside the workers’ health.
• Chen Fan received a tray of insect tissue, fish fat, algae, and plankton, then secretly stored it rather than eating it.
• Yi reported that every ration precisely matched its recipient’s physical condition and was sufficient to maintain the Zhaoyuan people’s health.

Chen Fan and the others realized the Bulei Civilization was raising the Zhaoyuan People as livestock, while Nikas explained that deaths were common side effects of the Thought Synchronization Console. After a Zhaoyuan person died, Chen Fan secretly sent Nanomachines into the corpse before a Surveillance Drone warned him to stop.

• Chen Fan, Isa, and Gao Yuan concluded that the Bulei Civilization was raising intelligent life-forms as livestock and using factory work to increase their value.
• Anbu Er asked why the Bulei Civilization would raise intelligent beings, but a Zhaoyuan person collapsed and died before Chen Fan could answer.
• Nikas told Anbu Er that deaths were common because of the Thought Synchronization Console and that drones took the corpses away for disposal.
• Chen Fan hurried to the corpse and released Nanomachines into it despite Nikas's warning and the Surveillance Drones' orders.
• A Surveillance Drone scanned the corpse and gave Chen Fan his first warning, threatening him with high-voltage punishment if he touched another corpse.

Chen Fan used Nanomachines to track a Zhaoyuan corpse and discovered that the Bulei People harvested the brains of higher intelligent lifeforms to make stardust. The footage revealed the scale of the operation, but left Chen Fan and his companions watching as another corpse arrived to be processed.

• Chen Fan let the Surveillance Drones retrieve the Zhaoyuan salamander’s corpse after they confirmed it was dead.
• At the rest area, Chen Fan showed Gao Yuan, Isa, Anbu Er, and Nikas footage captured by Nanomachines he had implanted in the corpse.
• Chen Fan revealed that the Bulei People had collected corpses from 173 races, including 571 Zhaoyuan people, in a processing room.
• The group watched Bulei drones cut open the corpses and harvest their brains, which the Bulei People described as raw material for low-quality stardust.
• After the Bulei workers left, machines shredded the brainless bodies and cleaned the room before Surveillance Drones delivered another corpse.

Chen Fan confirmed that Star Sand was refined from brains cultivated through Thought Synchronization Consoles and used Nanomachines to investigate the production process. As a Bulei worker moved to inspect the contaminated liquid, an alarm announced that the Lamsi Empire fleet had attacked.

• Anbu Er recoiled at learning that Star Sand was made from brain extracts, while Chen Fan connected Aberrant Synapses to the Thought Synchronization Consoles.
• Chen Fan examined Anbu Er and Nikas with Nanomachines and learned that Nikas had more severe Aberrant Synapses.
• Chen Fan used Nanomachines in a Zhaoyuan person's corpse to observe the turbine's core Star Sand factory, where brains were pulverized and processed into purified liquid.
• Bulei workers praised the liquid's concentration, and one decided to inspect it despite Chen Fan's fear that the Nanomachines would be detected.
• An alarm interrupted the Bulei worker's inspection, and the Bulei People announced that the Lamsi Empire fleet had attacked.

Chen Fan discovered that the Lamsi Empire Fleet could use wormhole technology to cross nearly 16,000 light-years in minutes, but the Bulei People treated its approach as routine and bet on where it would turn. After the fleet changed course, Isa revealed that it was heading toward the Zhaoyuan Star System.

• Yi detected anomalous spacetime fluctuations and identified the approaching Lamsi Empire Fleet, which Chen Fan suspected had wormhole technology.
• Chen Fan ordered Yi to ready the Varrela for a jump and to request reinforcements if the situation worsened.
• The Bulei People shut off the enemy attack alarm and casually bet on how far away the Lamsi Empire Fleet would turn.
• The fleet stopped near 10,800 light-years from Turbine, then changed course while the Bulei People continued discussing its random attacks.
• Chen Fan wondered why the Lamsi Empire avoided Bulei Civilization territory and suspected the Bulei People possessed something valuable to it.
• Isa pointed out that the fleet was heading toward the Zhaoyuan Star System, shocking Chen Fan and Gao Yuan.