Chapter Summaries

After Paranoid recovered and gained the Nether Bottle, the team set out again for the Alliance and diverted toward Sihai Star after encountering Forest Seas that pursued them from great distances. With progress stalled, Yi He proposed pushing through to search for spirit stones, and Ruler agreed to scout the way for eight thousand spirit stones.

• Paranoid recovered from his tribulation injuries, accepted Qu Jianlei's Nether Bottle, and joined the expedition roster with Jia Shuiqing and Qinghu.
• More than a year later, the Battalion-Class Ship crossed the channel to the Alliance, and Hua Xiezhi told the military they intended to clash with the Alien Race and the Alliance.
• Qu Jianlei's team reached the Heim Star Region, chose to head toward Sihai Star, and encountered Forest Seas that pursued their ship from roughly ten million kilometers away.
• After days of evading Forest Seas without making progress, Old Lady Jia questioned the plan, and Yi He proposed forcing a path through to search for spirit stones.
• Ruler agreed to scout ahead for eight thousand spirit stones after Qu Jianlei bargained down the price.

Qu Jianlei’s crew explored the Alien Race region and tested a small Forest Sea, only to discover that it reacted with unusual aggression and summoned reinforcements. They escaped after losing a Small Ship and concluded that an important Alien Race node lay nearby, while Jia Shuiqing wondered how Sunset Glow would react when he returned.

• The crew agreed to scout the region while Sunset Glow searched for Locust World, and Paranoid hoped to fight an isolated Forest Sea.
• After days of evading numerous Forest Seas, the crew encountered a group of just over a hundred trees and decided to test it with Small Ships.
• The Forest Sea grew faster and attacked with unusual intensity, prompting Yi He to suggest that the crew was nearing an important node.
• Qu Jianlei ordered the crew to disengage, but nearby Forest Seas arrived as reinforcements and destroyed one Small Ship during the escape.
• After fleeing more than a hundred million kilometers, the crew concluded that the Alien Races were guarding a nearby node, and Jia Shuiqing wondered whether Sunset Glow would scold them.

Qu Jianlei's group confirmed that Alien Race Forests of Trees recognized their ship's distinctive Small Ship, then negotiated with another human starship for Energy Blocks and Space Stones. Hua Xiezhi revealed a fist-sized Space Stone of her own, leaving the other crew stunned during their video call.

• Qu Jianlei's group tested the Alien Race Forest of Trees' hostility and found that hiding the attached Small Ship made them less likely to be recognized.
• Hua Xiezhi rejected a request to team up when another human starship contacted them, but discussed selling Energy Blocks.
• The other crew asked to buy two hundred million Energy Blocks and offered cash, Alien Race intelligence, and Space Stones as payment.
• Hua Xiezhi agreed to inspect the Space Stones and showed the other crew a fist-sized one from her Item-Storing Talismans.

Hua Xiezhi’s group traded Energy Blocks for Space Stones and exchanged information with an Alliance bounty-hunting squad before learning that powerful Locusts might inhabit trees more than five hundred meters across. They later lured a Forest Sea far from its territory and prepared a Small Ship as bait, waiting to see how the Alien Race would react.

• Hua Xiezhi agreed to buy two Space Stones, and Fourth Boss and Qinghu completed the exchange after the sellers came up short on cash.
• The visiting starship shared information about the Space Stones and the unusually violent Alien Race, then identified itself as the New Star Bounty Hunting Group Eleventh Squad.
• The other squad said high-level Locusts might inhabit trees over five hundred meters in diameter, prompting Hua Xiezhi’s group to keep searching for a Forest Sea.
• Qu Jianlei’s group found a Forest Sea with three exceptionally thick trees, and Xiao Hu disguised their starship as damaged to draw it into pursuit.
• After leading the Forest Sea more than sixty million kilometers away, Xiao Hu released a Small Ship from the Cargo Hold while Qu Jianlei watched for the Alien Race’s response.

Qu Jianlei lured a Forest Sea away from its territory and led four starships in a fierce battle that crippled both the enemy and their own vessels. When two Nascent Soul Locusts and distant reinforcements threatened to trap them, Qu Jianlei’s group moved out to attack, leaving Jing Yuexin aboard the starship.

• Qu Jianlei drew the Forest Sea into pursuit, then had the four starships fight it while retreating and destroyed around forty trees in the first half hour.
• The battle continued for another hour, leaving the Forest Sea with more than half its forces destroyed and the starships heavily damaged.
• Two Nascent Soul Locusts emerged from the largest tree as two more Forest Seas approached, and Qu Jianlei warned the group that reinforcements were coming.
• Qu Jianlei ordered the Above Supremes and Bentley to move out while Jing Yuexin stayed aboard, and Paranoid, Jia Shuiqing, and Qinghu engaged the Locusts.
• Qu Jianlei and Duo Gan charged into the Forest Sea, where Qu Jianlei severed its thickest tree and Duo Gan swept through the trees with the King Kong Bracelet.

Duo Gan and the others tested their artifacts and techniques against the Alien Race, discovering that Light Armor talismans and several elemental attacks could counter the Locusts. They defeated the main force and escaped incoming reinforcements, leaving with new confidence but still needing to find a profitable way to fight the Locust World.

• Duo Gan tested the Wind Stabilizing Pearl and Light Armor Art Talisman against the Locusts, and the talisman stopped a Black Line from injuring her.
• Paranoid tested the Nether Bottle on a Nascent Soul Locust, but Qinghu killed it before he could capture it, prompting him to attack with a Golden Wheel.
• Qu Jianlei cut down a huge tree, and Yuanyuan used the Soul Refining Cover to burn several trees and hundreds of Locusts.
• Four Nascent Soul Locusts emerged from the tree trunk, and Qu Jianlei, Paranoid, and Bentley helped kill them before Qu Jianlei stored the trunk in his Yin Soul Pouch.
• Qu Jianlei ordered the group to kill the Alien Race's main force, then led them back to their starship and away from incoming reinforcements.
• Aboard the fleeing starship, the group discussed their victory, and Jia Shuiqing said the Light Armor Art Talismans consumed too much spiritual energy and they needed several days to recover.

After capturing hundreds of Locusts and finding a patterned tree trunk that might transmit both people and information, Qu Jianlei’s team withdrew to recover and study their spoils. They delivered the prisoners and damaged starship to the military, which began containment and repairs while the team weighed how to proceed.

• After retreating for eight days, Qu Jianlei’s team rested in a meteor, then he and Jing Yuexin used the Soul Suppressing Bell to freeze several hundred Locusts released from the Yin Soul Pouch.
• Qu Jianlei examined the patterned tree trunk with Jiaotan, who suspected it could transmit information as well as teleport people, and Qu Jianlei packed it away after ten minutes of study.
• Qu Jianlei sent the captured Locusts, tree trunks, corpses, and battle-damaged starship to the Battalion-Class Ship, then brought the ship to the passage entrance with Fourth Boss.
• Fourth Boss told the military that their team had tested the Locusts and offered blueprints for their electric-shock containment equipment, while keeping their infiltration methods secret.
• Two days later, the military reported that repairing the starship would take at least half a month with Alliance parts or two months with locally made replacements.

After Ruler reported an overwhelming presence near the Mother Tree, Qu Jianlei’s team used divination to assess the danger and decided to investigate anyway. They teleported to a scorching neighboring planet, where they began searching without alerting the Locusts.

• The military agreed to provide replacement components without charging the team, and the Battalion-Class Ship departed.
• After the team recovered and returned to Sihai Star, they found the Alien Race Forest of Trees unchanged and continued probing it cautiously.
• Ruler returned after scouting alone and said Sihai Star held an aura like an Out-of-Body Realm presence, then revealed that it had set up a Teleportation Array on the Second Planet.
• Qu Jianlei divined Small Inauspicious, and the team chose to proceed, relying on their array as an escape route if necessary.
• The team teleported to the Second Planet, endured its extreme heat, and began investigating while the Locusts remained unaware.

Qu Jianlei, Sunset Glow, and Yi He cautiously approached Sihai Star through the alien race’s heavily guarded Forest Seas to search for a place to land and possibly set up a Teleportation Array. They reached a point five hundred thousand kilometers from the planet, where a colossal tree emerged on the horizon.

• After three days observing Sihai Star, Jia Shuiqing reported no sign of an Out-of-Body Realm expert, while Sunset Glow warned that the alien race was too numerous to confront directly.
• Qu Jianlei decided to approach Sihai Star, and Sunset Glow agreed to take him; Yi He joined them while the others stayed behind to prepare support and evacuation measures.
• Sunset Glow carried Qu Jianlei and Yi He through space for over two days, and they cautiously navigated the dense, organized Forest Seas surrounding Sihai Star.
• The trio advanced to within five hundred thousand kilometers of Sihai Star and saw that trees covered nearly the entire surface, leaving few possible landing sites.
• After Sunset Glow told the others to look, a gigantic tree appeared beyond the horizon, with a canopy spanning an estimated two to three hundred thousand square kilometers and a trunk surrounded by dozens of subsidiary trunks.

Qu Jianlei and his companions observed the Alien Race teleporting reinforcements to Sihai Star, then secretly descended to establish two Teleportation Arrays. As they fled the planet, a tree fired a Black Line at them, and Qu Jianlei sensed an enormous threat.

• Qu Jianlei, Yi He, and Sunset Glow watched a giant tree and learned that the Alien Race was teleporting thousands of trees to Sihai Star.
• After observing for two more days, Qu Jianlei ordered the group to descend, and Sunset Glow guided them safely to an uninhabited saline-alkali region.
• Qu Jianlei built a Stone Chamber and installed two Teleportation Arrays beneath the saline-alkali ground.
• The companions waited until the next night to leave, then slowly rose into space and began traveling away from Sihai Star.
• A tree fired a Black Line toward them from tens of thousands of kilometers away, and Qu Jianlei sensed the attack as an overwhelming threat.

Qu Jianlei and his companions escaped a surprise attack by the Alien Race on Sihai Star, using a teleportation array’s self-destruct to evade the Mother Tree’s forces. After regrouping on the meteor, the team learned Claire had helped establish four more arrays on the Second Planet, while Qu Jianlei worried that Mother Trees might threaten other worlds too.

• Qu Jianlei, Sunset Glow, and Yi He reacted to a tree’s black-line attack with talismans, mental attacks, and a teleportation array, whose delayed self-destruct wiped out the surrounding Alien Race forces.
• The Mother Tree sensed both the hostile energy and a space ripple, sending seven or eight Nascent Soul Locusts to investigate as Qu Jianlei’s group teleported to a meteor instead of the Second Planet.
• Qu Jianlei and Yi He discussed the danger posed by the Mother Tree and its ability to teleport Alien Race forces, while Sunset Glow returned to notify their companions on the Second Planet.
• The rest of the team returned in batches, and Claire told Qu Jianlei they had built four more teleportation arrays and that her Dark Sky Curtain could conceal their auras from Locusts.
• The Alien Race on the Second Planet noticed the disturbance at Sihai Star but sent no ground forces to support it, and several trees that took flight did not head toward Sihai.

Qu Jianlei's team regrouped after escaping the Alien Race, then decided to travel to Taigu and seize the Alliance's Space Stones despite the risk of revealing Digital Phantom's arrival. They teleported into a stone chamber and discovered that someone was waiting outside.

• Sunset Glow and Old Lady Jia returned with the team after observing the Alien Race, and Qu Jianlei explained what had happened with the Mother Tree.
• The team discussed the risks of traveling to Sihe and considered taking the Battalion-Class Ship, while Qu Jianlei recovered in a Gathering Spirit Array.
• After resting, Qu Jianlei proposed going to Taigu, and the others agreed that they were ready to announce their arrival in the Alliance.
• The team prepared the meteor, stored their starship, and teleported to Taigu through a Teleportation Array.
• The team sensed people outside the stone chamber, and a voice outside warned them to come out or face consequences.

Digital Phantom emerged from its hidden stone chamber on Taigu Star and attacked the Alliance investigators who had discovered them. After the team overwhelmed the first responders and stormed the nearby Control Center, its fleeing personnel activated two large-caliber weapon arrays.

• Paranoid, Yuanyuan, and the others prepared to fight after learning that armed investigators had surrounded their underground chamber.
• Qu Jianlei signaled the attack, and Digital Phantom’s Mental Attacks knocked out the investigators guarding the tunnel; Paranoid killed the Electromagnetic Rank A, while Sunset Glow ordered the surviving supreme-level Awakened Ones kept alive for questioning.
• Jing Yuexin, Duo Gan, and the others rushed outside and slaughtered the people around the tunnel as alarms and surveillance systems failed.
• Several Digital Phantom members headed for the Control Center, prompting its observers to flee and activate two large-caliber Close-in Weapon System Arrays.

Qu Jianlei's group massacred the ambushers at the Stone Chamber, captured four survivors, and fled before the city guard and military arrived. Yi He searched the captives’ souls and learned that the ambush had begun after a company discovered the hidden chamber and recruited military experts to investigate it, leaving the danger to the Teleportation Array unresolved.

• The Close-in Weapon System Arrays failed to activate, and Qu Jianlei's group killed the ambushers, captured three Supremes and a military scout, and removed traces of the battle.
• The city guard arrived, then the military took control of the investigation and barred the guards from entering the scene.
• Qu Jianlei's group traveled three thousand kilometers away and released the captives for Yi He to search their souls.
• Yi He learned that a company had discovered the Stone Chamber while testing detection equipment in a government-designated area.
• Two Supremes had concealed the discovery from their company's management and enlisted military experts to investigate and disable a possible explosive device inside the chamber.

Qu Jianlei and his allies killed people who knew about their activities, then hid in the forest while the Alliance investigated the resulting deaths. They learned that the authorities had mistaken the incident for a possible company feud, and Qu Jianlei proposed investigating the Divine Script Dharma.

• Qu Jianlei agreed with his allies to eliminate people who knew about their activities, and Paranoid, Qu Jianlei, Duo Gan, Qinghu, and Jia Shuiqing killed dozens of potential witnesses.
• Qu Jianlei’s group hid under a Stealth Array for three days while detection devices searched the area without finding them.
• Qu Jianlei and four companions investigated the incident and learned that the military suspected an internal company conflict because evidence was scarce and one witness’s account was vague.
• Qu Jianlei suggested that the group investigate the Divine Script Dharma.

Qu Jianlei and his companions sabotaged Taigu Star, robbing banks and the Second Research Institute while stealing a cargo ship. The Alliance military identified Digital Phantom as the likely culprit and learned the next day that the ship and its captain’s key had disappeared.

• After confirming the location of a Divine Script Dharma and checking that the military had shelved the previous battle, Qu Jianlei and his companions chose a target freight company and a nearly new cargo ship.
• Hua Xiezhi killed the A-rank captain who held the ship’s key, while Sunset Glow and Jia Shuiqing moved against Alliance First Bank.
• Qu Jianlei, Paranoid, and Old Lady Jia looted a gold vault and two Energy Block warehouses as Sunset Glow struck Alliance Central Bank’s safe deposit vault and found a damaged Dharma artifact.
• The group infiltrated the Alliance Second Research Institute, stole Space Stones and research materials, and planted explosives that destroyed the warehouse as they escaped.
• Qu Jianlei’s group regrouped at the mountain and activated the Praying Rain Array, while Sunset Glow used the Item-Storing Ring to take the cargo ship from the starport.
• The Alliance military blamed Digital Phantom for the night’s attacks, then learned that the freight captain had been murdered and his ship and key had vanished.

Qu Jianlei and Digital Phantom escaped Taigu Star, gave the military recordings revealing the Alien Race’s enormous Mother Tree and mass teleportation, and negotiated for two Division Level Ships and Warp Jammers. Back at the Celestial Hook Mystic Mansion, the Artifact Spirit complained that visitors were draining spiritual qi, so Qu Jianlei arranged to expand the conversion arrays.

• The military linked a missing starship and other thefts to Digital Phantom while local forces argued over weapons distribution, weakening the search.
• After Jing Yuexin’s divination warned of Small Inauspicious, Qu Jianlei’s group detonated explosions near military camps and teleported to their Battalion-Class Ship.
• Digital Phantom showed the military recordings of the Mother Tree and the Alien Race Forest of Trees teleporting from Sihai Star, prompting urgent discussion of the threat.
• Qu Jianlei negotiated for two Division Level Ships and Warp Jammers, then returned with his group through the Channel Entrance to Dawn Base.
• The Artifact Spirit told Qu Jianlei that visitors and experiments were consuming spiritual qi faster than it could be converted, and he agreed to add more conversion arrays.
• Qu Jianlei arranged for two thousand sets of array materials and one thousand sets of robots to be sent to the Abode.

Qu Jianlei and Jing Yuexin discovered that Imperial Capital Academy personnel were violently trying to break into the Mystic Mansion’s Secret Realms, so Qu Jianlei authorized the Artifact Spirit to punish them. As conversion formations were installed over the following days, Qu Jianlei realized the incursions were organized and unexpectedly spotted Little White Sweet.

• Qu Jianlei and Jing Yuexin discovered that Supremes and other intruders were using force, including a Ship Cannon, to break into three Secret Realms.
• Qu Jianlei asked the Artifact Spirit to punish the group, and Jing Yuexin requested that it spare their lives.
• The Artifact Spirit struck the intruders with lightning, destroying the Ship Cannon and leaving most of the group badly injured; a military Patrol Ship was also struck when it arrived.
• Qu Jianlei told the Artifact Spirit to increase punishments gradually after Jing Yuexin warned that a stronger response could arouse suspicion.
• Three days later, Qu Jianlei concluded that the incursions were organized and spotted Little White Sweet while conversion formations were being installed.

Qu Jianlei and his team took delivery of two Division Level Ships, used unmanned vessels and teleportation to solve their transportation needs, and developed the Locust Qi Gathering Array to version 2.0. After improving his magical-artifact research with Alliance materials, Qu Jianlei realized he could try making an Item-Storing Ring large enough to hold a Division Level Ship, but the world lacked the rare materials such a ring required.

• Jing Yuexin and Qu Jianlei discussed Luo Hanshuang's cultivation and whether she had earned or been invited to join the expedition.
• Qu Jianlei's team took over two Division Level Ships, sent one toward Sihe Star with Xiao Hu's avatar and Silver Fir Two aboard, and used teleportation to avoid long journeys.
• Xiao Hu advanced the Locust Qi Gathering Array to version 2.0, tripling its conversion efficiency and continuing research into Dark Attribute energy.
• Qu Jianlei used materials and experimental data from the Alliance Second Research Institute to make progress on enlarging and shrinking hollow vessels and the Black Colt Tower.
• Qu Jianlei decided to pursue an Item-Storing Ring large enough for a Division Level Ship, but recognized that making one would require rare materials unavailable in the barren world.

Qu Jianlei’s team joined forces with an Imperial military fleet and pushed deeper into Alliance territory. After destroying a field of detectors, they made a forceful breach and prepared to engage an approaching Alliance fleet.

• Qu Jianlei crafted two large Item-Storing Rings, then rested with his team before preparing to travel to the Alliance.
• Fourth Boss accepted the military’s request to take two battalion-level combat units under Digital Phantom’s command.
• The combined fleet bypassed Alien Race Forests of Trees until it encountered Alliance detectors.
• Fourth Boss ordered six Company-level Warships to destroy the detectors while the cloaked main ships advanced.
• Alliance Patrol Ships fled as the Imperial fleet attacked, and an Alliance Battalion-Class fleet arrived to block them.
• Fourth Boss positioned two military Battalion-Class Ships in front of the Division Level Ship, and the Alliance discovered the Imperial formation deploying Attack Ships from a million kilometers away.