Recaps

The Alliance prepared Ke Qi Star’s formidable defenses for an Imperial attack, but Digital Phantom’s forces disrupted the battle and crippled the Space Fortresses. The chapter ended with the Alliance commander realizing the enemy had infiltrated the fortresses.

• The Alliance held its central line while its flanking fleets moved to encircle the Imperial forces, only to find the enemy’s flanks heavily defended.
• Explosions erupted on Ke Qi Star, and more than a hundred Imperial ships—including a ship bearing Digital Phantom’s mark—joined the battle.
• The Alliance commander ordered a retreat toward the Space Fortresses, then learned that two Digital Phantom Division Level Ships had appeared on the enemy’s wings.
• As attention focused on the space battle, explosions destroyed the Space Fortresses’ power and fire-control systems, sharply reducing their combat strength.
• The Alliance commander ordered another withdrawal and wondered how the enemy had infiltrated the Space Fortresses.

Qu Jianlei and the others used Xiao Hu to sabotage Ke Qi Star’s military systems and seize its reserve warships, turning them against the Alliance fleet. As the Alliance suffered growing losses and its defenses failed, the Alliance Commander ordered a retreat beneath the planetary shield.

• Xiao Hu’s infiltration disrupted Space Fortress systems, and explosions struck the Backup Military Ports as reserve warships began launching.
• The Alliance Commander ordered ground artillery and Permanent Fortresses to attack, but infiltrated fire-control and communications systems made the defenses difficult to operate.
• Alliance forces and controlled reserve warships exchanged fire across Ke Qi Star and in space, while the attackers infiltrated more Alliance ships.
• The Alliance Commander ordered the fleet to retreat inside the planetary shield and continue resisting.

The Kochi Star Alliance Commander ordered a global mobilization as Alliance ships retreated beneath the planetary shield, then tried to rally resistance by confronting Hua Xiezhi in a live broadcast. Hua exposed the Alliance’s crimes and revealed that Digital Phantom had rescued children during the Baozhi Star breakout, leaving both fleets stunned as the Imperial fleet withdrew.

• The Alliance Commander ordered a global emergency mobilization and pulled the remaining warships beneath Kochi Star’s planetary shield.
• After Digital Phantom attacked the damaged Space Fortresses, the Commander demanded a live broadcast and accused Hua Xiezhi’s side of aiding the Alien Race.
• Hua Xiezhi exposed Alliance crimes on Hope Fourth Star and Tianfeng Star, then revealed that Digital Phantom had helped Wu Zhen’s breakout on Baozhi Star and rescued ten children.
• The Commander froze when he realized Digital Phantom was the mysterious team from Baozhi Star, while Alliance soldiers questioned what their own forces had done there.
• The Alliance issued orders forbidding discussion of Baozhi Star, and the Imperial and Alliance fleets reacted with disbelief to the revelation that Alliance people might belong to Digital Phantom.
• The Imperial fleet withdrew, and Hua Xiezhi later told a colonel that her team had rescued the children in exchange for money and magical artifacts.

Qu Jianlei’s fleet divided the spoils from its victory, then headed into the Alien Race rear area and fought two Forest Sea formations. The fleet improved its tactics and continued toward the Space Wave Point on Sihe Star, where another vast Alien Race Forest Sea awaited.

• Digital Phantom agreed to let Xiao Hu’s fragments remain temporarily aboard Imperial warships, provided the military destroyed them when the fleets returned.
• Qu Jianlei’s fleet fought a Forest Sea formation of more than seven hundred trees, losing over two hundred Small Ships and more than ten Company-level Warships before wiping out the Alien Race and its fleeing Locusts.
• Xiao Hu reported that the destroyed Alien Race corpses and fragments had lost their energy properties after an Antimatter Annihilation Bomb was used on them.
• Qu Jianlei’s fleet encountered another Forest Sea formation and defeated it in seven hours, losing fewer than two hundred Small Ships while improving its combat performance.
• Fourth Boss told the colonel that the fleet was headed for the Space Wave Point on Sihe Star, where a vast Alien Race Forest Sea was also located.

Qu Jianlei’s fleet lured a huge Alien Race Forest of Trees away from the protective ring around the Space Wave Point, then ambushed and destroyed it. The fleet quietly surveyed the unstable Wave Point and its dangerous energy field.

• During eighteen days of travel, Qu Jianlei’s fleet encountered seventeen more Alien Race Forests of Trees, avoided several dangerous battles, and suffered heavy ship losses while destroying more than sixteen thousand trees.
• On the nineteenth day, Qu Jianlei’s fleet reached the Space Wave Point and found a vast Forest Sea protected by nearby forces; after monitoring yielded little, he chose to lure the enemy away rather than attack head-on.
• Qu Jianlei sent Alliance ships to provoke the Forest Sea, then used concealed reinforcements and Small Ships to draw its forces out and open a gap in the protective ring.
• As the Alien Race force pursued the decoy fleet, Qinghu and Tian Yin helped spring an ambush; Qu Jianlei’s forces destroyed the pursuing enemy before it could return.
• Over the next two days, the fleet quietly surveyed the Space Wave Point, measuring its intense energy fluctuations and identifying a bright-red danger zone around its core.

Qu Jianlei’s fleet observed a dangerous Space Point, then wiped out many outer Alien Race forests while waiting for its energy eruption. After the opening spewed energy and the Alien Race began collecting its contents, Qu Jianlei chose to let them gather the goods first, leaving open the possibility of taking them later.

• Qu Jianlei observed the Alien Race forces around the Space Point and concluded that the Inner Circle Forest Sea guarded it from the outer forests.
• After the Big Head Butterfly detected abnormal fluctuations, Qu Jianlei sent Qinghu, Tian Yin, Paranoid, and Yuanyuan to destroy outer Alien Race forests while keeping the fleet near the suspected eruption point.
• Over eleven days, the two groups destroyed six forests, and the military fleet later joined the campaign, bringing the total to thirty forests and more than twenty thousand trees.
• The Space Point shook for over three days, then erupted in a vast energy beam that expanded to more than two thousand kilometers across.
• As the energy discharge weakened, Alien Race trees moved closer to collect items, but Qu Jianlei decided to let them gather the goods before considering taking them.

Qu Jianlei’s team waited through another Space Ripple eruption while the Outer Circle forces adapted their tactics and gathered more information about the Alien Race. When the next eruption began earlier and more violently than expected, the Alliance launched its general offensive, and the battle was still raging around the Alien Race’s largest gathering point.

• After an eruption destroyed many trees, Qu Jianlei chose to wait and study the Space Ripple cycle, and divination predicted another eruption in two and a half to four months.
• Mu Guang arrived to ask about Rhine’s breakthrough, but Jing Yuexin told him to wait, and Qu Jianlei warned him not to teleport during the approaching eruption.
• Paranoid and the colonel’s forces resumed attacks in the Outer Circle, splitting their fleets into twenty teams when the Space Ripple erupted ahead of schedule.
• As the Energy Beams’ breach stopped expanding, the Alliance fleets launched a coordinated general offensive against the Alien Race Forest Sea.
• Qinghu led the defense of a Division Level Ship against a Nascent Soul Locust ambush, while Qu Jianlei held back his forces.
• The Big Head Butterfly warned Qu Jianlei that a tree more than seven hundred meters thick felt abnormal.

Qu Jianlei let a strangely behaving Alien Race tree escape the fleet’s attacks after Senior Yi He identified its unusual trajectory as a Cultivation World gesture of submission. The battle ended with the tree in custody, leaving the team to question it while the military cleaned up the battlefield.

• Qu Jianlei noticed that one tree was weaving through space and attacking Small Ships, and he suspected it was trying to flee.
• Senior Yi He recognized the tree’s trajectory as a pattern of submission, so Qu Jianlei ordered the fleet to leave an escape route and hold its fire.
• The tree took the opening but kept moving strangely and attacking Small Ships, prompting Qu Jianlei to tell a Battalion-Class Ship to spare it.
• The soldiers and Qu Jianlei’s team discussed the tree’s behavior, and Paranoid worried it might know a route to the Cultivation World.
• The battle ended two hours later, and the Alien Race tree stopped advancing and was held for questioning as the fleet began cleanup and deployed monitors.

Qu Jianlei questioned a captured tree that had betrayed the Alien Race Forest of Trees, and learned that it wanted to join the Cultivators to survive. The tree revealed that only one Mother Tree had come to Sihai Star and that Space Stones were essential to a tree becoming a Mother Tree.

• Qu Jianlei and his companions confronted the tree with magic artifacts, and it recognized them as Cultivators from their artifacts and Qinghu’s Light Element.
• The tree explained that its inherited memories came from a Mother Tree killed by Cultivators, who had taught it to flee from them and survive by staying cautious.
• After admitting that it had been bullied and ostracized by its own race, the tree offered to serve Qu Jianlei and share secrets in exchange for being spared.
• Jing Yuexin welcomed the chance to learn about the Alien Races, and Qu Jianlei asked the tree how many Mother Trees had come to their world.
• The tree identified a planet on a star map of Sihai Star and said that Mother Trees needed resources including Rule Items such as Space Stones, which were essential for becoming a Mother Tree.

A resentful Alien Race tree offered to defect to Digital Phantom and revealed that it knew the locations of two Mother Trees. Qu Jianlei’s team accepted it under an oath, while the military agreed to conceal the defection until the Space Wave Point’s eruption ended; Jia Shuiqing then ordered the tree to destroy all spores inside itself.

• The tree explained that it had been denied a share of the Space Wave Point and claimed it joined the Human Race’s camp after losing a war.
• The tree offered to cooperate with Digital Phantom, identify two Mother Trees, and help counterattack its world, and Jia Shuiqing detected no lies.
• Qu Jianlei’s team decided not to kill the tree, and Sunset Glow made it swear the Oath of the Heavenly Dao eight times.
• Qu Jianlei returned to the ship, where Jing Yuexin questioned his decision to take in the tree and he worried about explaining it to the military.
• Hua Xiezhi told the senior colonel that Digital Phantom intended to take in the tree, and he agreed to seal the information until the Space Wave Point’s eruption ended.
• The tree said two others had absorbed the Space Stones, and Jia Shuiqing ordered it to destroy every spore inside its body.

Qu Jianlei’s team accepted the cooperative tree as a member and named it Wind Forgotten, then discovered contaminated Space Stones in the remains of two Alien Race trees. After Tian Yin used Light Seal to remove much of the contamination, Wind Forgotten pointed out that the process had also wasted some of the stones’ Spatial Rules.

• Jia Shuiqing questioned the tree about Nascent Soul Locusts, and it explained its hatred of the Locusts and its lack of resources to raise them.
• The Ruler arranged for the tree to show the team how other Tree Race members absorbed Space Stones, while Jia Shuiqing warned that the First One valued them.
• After the energy beam stopped expanding, Qu Jianlei rejected Sunset Glow and Yi He’s idea of exploring beyond it and proposed waiting to see what the eruption revealed.
• Qu Jianlei’s team accepted the tree as a member and agreed to call it Wind Forgotten, then found traces of Space Stone absorption in the remains of two large trees.
• Tian Yin used Light Seal three times to remove most of the dark aura from a Space Stone, and Wind Forgotten warned that the process had diminished its Spatial Rules.

Qu Jianlei and the fleet assessed the Space Point after defeating the Locusts, weighing whether to destroy it or wait for another eruption. A secret divination let Qu Jianlei accelerate the predicted eruption, and the fleet decided to stay for several more months.

• Qu Jianlei collected contaminated Space Stones and tree fragments, while Wind Forgotten explained how the Tree Race used Spatial Rules to teleport Locusts.
• The breach closed after twenty-one days, and Digital Phantom and the military divided the thousands of Space Stones they had found.
• Qu Jianlei and the others weighed destroying the Space Point against defending it from the arriving Alien Race Forests of Trees, then chose to wait for another eruption.
• Jing Yuexin approved a divination, and Xiao Hu spent twelve days calculating the most promising way to trigger the Space Ripple.
• Qu Jianlei secretly divined how to adjust the plan, bringing the predicted eruption forward from six months to three months, and So Hua Xiezhi told the colonel they would stay four or five months.

Qu Jianlei and Digital Phantom successfully triggered an Energy Gap at the Space Wave Point, gathered its harvest, and decided to leave after divining that it would not erupt again for six years. Their fleet returned toward the Channel Entrance, where an Alliance Patrol Ship recognized Digital Phantom and fled.

• Qu Jianlei and Xiao Hu spent months refining a plan and setting nearly a hundred thousand Detonation Points while Imperial forces held off the enemy and watched.
• Qu Jianlei detonated the devices, and abnormal energy fluctuations appeared five days later, confirming that they had triggered the Space Wave Point.
• The induced eruption lasted eleven days and yielded slightly fewer Space Stones than the previous one; Qu Jianlei left the smaller stones for the military.
• Qu Jianlei performed a final divination, learned that the Space Point would not erupt again for six years, and ordered the fleet to return to the Channel Entrance.
• The fleet reached the Blockade Zone and encountered an Alliance Patrol Ship, which recognized Digital Phantom and detoured away.

Digital Phantom returned to the Channel Entrance with Wind Forgotten, an Alien Race tree who wanted to surrender, and the Imperial military cautiously received them. Fourth Boss explained that Wind Forgotten was restrained but that they could not guarantee how much trouble it might cause before dying.

• Qu Jianlei ordered the fleet to bypass the Alien Race Forest of Trees so it would not provoke an attack on the Channel Entrance.
• The Imperial patrol discovered Wind Forgotten beneath the Battalion-Class Ship and required Digital Phantom to verify the fleet before approaching.
• Fourth Boss brought the Division Level Ship forward, and the Top Leader of the Forward Headquarters welcomed Digital Phantom back as legends.
• Fourth Boss told the Top Leader that Wind Forgotten intended to surrender and had provided useful intelligence.
• The Top Leader asked whether Wind Forgotten could be trusted, and Fourth Boss explained that a restriction would kill it if it caused trouble but might not prevent chaos beforehand.

Digital Phantom returned from the Occupied Area with Wind Forgotten, an Alien Race defector, and the military assessed the fleet’s discoveries and achievements. Xiao Hu found that Voidstone and Alien Race tree remains might create temporal differential speed, while the military refused to let Digital Phantom take Wind Forgotten back to the Empire for now.

• The Top Leader agreed to let Digital Phantom station outside the war zone and delayed deciding Wind Forgotten’s fate until after observation.
• Xiao Hu merged the fleet’s data and told Qu Jianlei that Voidstone and Alien Race tree remains might produce temporal differential speed.
• Digital Phantom returned with Wind Forgotten and its captured ships, while Qu Jianlei put away one Division Level Ship and gave four usable ships to the Imperial military.
• The military reviewed the fleet’s harassment campaign, deep incursions into the Occupied Area, seizure of Sihe Star’s Space Point, and method of triggering a Space Point eruption.
• Fourth Boss shared information Wind Forgotten had revealed, but told the military they could not learn how to make Alien Race members serve them.
• The military declined Digital Phantom’s request to take Wind Forgotten back to the Empire, pending risk assessment and negotiations with the government.

Qu Jianlei checked his team’s cultivation progress, handled plans to expand the Abode’s spiritual qi conversion, and returned to the Channel Entrance to test Xiao Hu’s improved Locust Qi Gathering Array. The new array showed promise against the Alien Race, though the military said it could not decide Digital Phantom’s rewards.

• Qu Jianlei assessed Rhine, Xiang Xue, Zi Jiuxian, Kefu, and Xiao Moshan’s cultivation, then privately warned Xiao Moshan about Xiao Qin’s slower progress.
• Qu Jianlei and Jing Yuexin collected Gold Digger from the Celestial Hook Mystic Mansion, where the Artifact Spirit requested more Transformation Arrays to speed the Abode’s conversion.
• Qu Jianlei arranged for materials and Energy Block transport, then learned that Luo Hanshuang had asked Xiao Moshan about Ran Bingluan and Primal Warriors.
• Bentley reported that Xiao Hu had improved the Locust corpse conversion rate, so Qu Jianlei went to the Experimental Platform and installed version 2.0 of the Locust Qi Gathering Array.
• After several days of testing showed improved energy use and reduced Yin Cold Qi, Hua Xiezhi contacted the military, which praised the breakthrough but said it could not decide Digital Phantom’s rewards.

Qu Jianlei checked that Wind Forgotten remained loyal, then Digital Phantom used its achievements to pressure the authorities over the unresolved Alien Race defector. Military officials met Fourth Boss with news of Major General Paster’s death and tried to negotiate, but Fourth Boss rejected military merit as a motive and objected to their request to use fragments of the team’s artificial intelligence.

• Qu Jianlei asked Wind Forgotten whether its world had spirit stones, and Wind Forgotten described sensing similar auras from members of the Tree Race and the Mother Tree.
• Qu Jianlei returned to the Experimental Platform and teleported to Pan Rock Star, where Fourth Boss had arrived to collect materials and handle team affairs.
• Fourth Boss urged the Rock Military District to press for the Locust Qi Gathering Array rewards to be finalized, prompting the district to report upward about Digital Phantom’s dissatisfaction.
• A general and Pute arrived at Pan Rock Star and told Fourth Boss that Major General Paster had died by suicide after his corruption was exposed.
• The general said the military could support Wind Forgotten’s temporary entry if Digital Phantom earned more military merit, but Fourth Boss said the team sought a clear conscience, not merit.
• The general asked to use fragments of Digital Phantom’s artificial intelligence, and Fourth Boss objected that the team had already made its position clear.

Fourth Boss secured military approval to lend the Empire a customized artificial intelligence fragment with a two-year limit and a backdoor, as the military sought an edge against the Federation. He stayed on Pan Rock Star while Qu Jianlei prepared an avatar core and Xiao Hu researched temporal rate differences, and Jing Yuexin and Yuanyuan arrived with the Artifact Spirit urging them to gather materials for the Transformation Array.

• The general explained that the Federation had intensified its attacks and asked Digital Phantom to lend artificial intelligence fragments for the Empire's warships.
• Fourth Boss contacted First One, and Xiao Hu agreed to send a fragment with backdoors it had designed.
• Fourth Boss told the general that the Empire could use the fragment for two years and would have to delete it afterward.
• The military requested a customized fragment, and Qu Jianlei welcomed the chance to make its deployment easier to control.
• Fourth Boss delivered the fragment for encryption, then stayed on Pan Rock Star while he bought materials for a core and Xiao Hu researched temporal rate differences.
• Jing Yuexin and Yuanyuan teleported over as the Artifact Spirit urged them to obtain materials for the Transformation Array.

Yuanyuan took the Transformation Array materials while Jing Yuexin and Qu Jianlei went shopping with Shui Xisheng on Pan Rock Star. At a nature park, the three overheard visitors debating Digital Phantom, and the chapter ended with someone dismissing the team as publicity.

• Qu Jianlei and Jing Yuexin drew the city guards' attention when they tried to pay for jewelry with large-denomination Unregistered Silver Notes.
• Shui Xisheng arrived, identified the pair as his relatives, and paid the store by transfer after the guards dropped their inquiry.
• Shui Xisheng took Qu Jianlei and Jing Yuexin to a high-end custom clothing shop and later brought them to a nature park.
• Visitors at the park discussed Digital Phantom's recent battles and losses, while Qu Jianlei and Jing Yuexin listened.
• Someone nearby called Digital Phantom mere publicity, and Shui Xisheng looked to the pair to see whether they wanted him to respond.

Shui Xisheng confronted a man who accused Digital Phantom of seizing his Energy Stone Mine, then brought him before Qu Jianlei and Jing Yuexin. Jing Yuexin demanded that he state his real purpose and asked whether he could wield Digital Phantom as a weapon.

• A group of people argued over Digital Phantom, and Shui Xisheng stepped in when one man accused it of exploiting the Empire.
• The man claimed that Digital Phantom had seized his mine, so Shui Xisheng had his attendants surround the gathering and sent the bystanders away.
• After questioning the man, Shui Xisheng learned he had tried repeatedly to meet him about the mine.
• Jing Yuexin introduced herself, warned the man about publicly damaging Digital Phantom's reputation, and asked whether he meant to use the team as a blade.

Kailesi explained how a mine had used Digital Phantom’s name to evade taxes, and Jing Yuexin ordered him to identify other mines doing the same. Three days after Qu Jianlei and Jing Yuexin left, Fourth Boss reported that Kailesi had died suddenly in a luxury hotel.

• Kailesi told Jing Yuexin and Qu Jianlei that he had been forced to sell his mine shares cheaply, after which the new owners claimed the mine belonged to Digital Phantom and refused to pay taxes.
• Kailesi admitted he had made an unverified accusation against Digital Phantom while trying to bring the mine dispute to Shui Xisheng’s attention.
• Jing Yuexin gave Kailesi half a month to find every mine in the Great Wave Star Region using Digital Phantom’s name and report them to Shui Corporation.
• Qu Jianlei and Jing Yuexin ended their outing and agreed that they lacked the people and time to investigate all their other businesses.
• Three days later, Fourth Boss reported that Kailesi had died in a luxury hotel, with food poisoning and an acute heart attack listed as the preliminary cause.

After Kailesi’s suspicious poisoning death, Shui Xisheng opposed closing the case, and Qu Jianlei and Jing Yuexin treated it as an attack on Digital Phantom. Jing Yuexin arranged killings across the Great Wave Star Region, and after Qu Jianlei urged her to target those behind the murders as well, she agreed to continue the retaliation.

• Shui Xisheng contacted the authorities to object to closing Kailesi’s poisoning case, and Qu Jianlei and Jing Yuexin concluded that the authorities were disregarding Digital Phantom.
• Two days later, Digital Phantom’s operation left dozens of people dead in apparent murders across the Great Wave Star Region, while the authorities halted efforts to merge the cases.
• A well-dressed man confronted Young Master and Jack about Kailesi’s death, then ordered Young Master to leave for the Maiden Star Region as news of the killings arrived.
• Qu Jianlei asked Jing Yuexin whether she had arranged the Great Wave killings, and she confirmed that the victims had been connected to the matter.
• Qu Jianlei urged Jing Yuexin to go after the people behind the killings and their beneficiaries, and she agreed to kill them gradually.

Jing Yuexin left to handle a matter personally while Qu Jianlei stayed on Pan Rock Star, where he warned the Mine Management Department’s Top Leader that those impersonating Digital Phantom would face bloodshed. The warning became real when Young Master Qiao’s family was massacred, and the chapter ended with an old colleague calling the Top Leader in fear.

• Jing Yuexin refused Qu Jianlei’s offer to accompany her and asked him to activate her AI permissions so she could gather intelligence.
• The Mine Management Department’s Top Leader met Qu Jianlei and Shui Xisheng to ask whether Digital Phantom would accept compensation from people who had impersonated the group.
• Qu Jianlei demanded a list of everyone using Digital Phantom’s name and warned that there would be a great deal of bloodshed.
• The Top Leader left, relieved to have survived the meeting, and hoped his friends could avoid punishment by offering wealth.
• The next day, the Top Leader learned that Young Master Qiao’s family had been killed execution-style, and an old colleague called to plead that he was sincere.

Shui Xisheng questioned the Mine Management Department head about mines being operated under the Digital Phantom’s name and learned that several powerful families were involved. After rejecting a settlement of one artifact, Qu Jianlei told Shui Xisheng to identify the other offenders and see whether they would apologize and offer compensation.

• Shui Xisheng received the Mine Management Department head, who revealed that five mines had been taken over under the Digital Phantom’s banner and promised a list of other offenders within four days.
• The Mine Management Department head said three families wanted to offer their entire fortunes for mercy, while Young Master Qiao’s grandfather proposed one artifact to settle the matter.
• Shui Xisheng rejected the one-artifact offer and relayed the conversation to Qu Jianlei.
• Qu Jianlei said one artifact was not enough and told Shui Xisheng to investigate those still arranging takeovers and see whether they knew how to behave.
• Shui Xisheng agreed to track the offenders and suggested settling accounts with those who had already completed their crimes.

Qu Jianlei authorized Shui Xisheng to build an intelligence network for Digital Phantom, paying him fifty million a month. As others watched to see how far Digital Phantom’s retaliation would go, news arrived that Young Master Qiao’s grandfather had committed suicide.

• Qu Jianlei assigned Shui Xisheng to investigate attacks on Digital Phantom’s reputation and offered him a monthly fee of fifty million.
• Shui Xisheng gathered more than eighty friends and guests at Shui Corporation to celebrate and discuss helping with the work.
• Keli asked Shui Xisheng whether an old man would survive and offered fifty billion to discuss a privately operated mine, but Shui Xisheng refused to negotiate at the gathering.
• Keli advised his contact to wait and see how Digital Phantom acted, while a fat man feared his family would abandon him if the retaliation stopped with Young Master Qiao.
• News arrived the next day that Young Master Qiao’s grandfather had committed suicide.