Chapter Summaries

Thirty years after entering hibernation, Yun Xinghe woke aboard the Flying Heaven and led his crew toward a hidden star system surrounded by a vast Black Curtain. They breached the curtain and discovered a bright, heat-filled interior, but tracking devices quickly converged on their ship.

• Yun Xinghe woke from hibernation, restored his lost memories, and confirmed that the Flying Heaven and its upgraded AI, Xiao Kong, were functioning normally.
• Yun Xinghe awakened his companions as the Flying Heaven approached the hidden Star System, and he argued that they should investigate the Black Curtain and attempt communication.
• A year and a half later, Yun Xinghe and his crew watched the Flying Heaven force its way through the Black Curtain at 0.6c.
• Yun Qiaoqiao noticed the bright interior, and Du Xiaopang identified a planet in the Habitable Zone where the alien civilization might live.
• Xiao Kong warned Yun Xinghe that defensive tracking devices traveling at approximately 0.25c were rapidly converging on the Flying Heaven.

Yun Xinghe and the Flying Heaven faced a pursuit by a hundred Water Drops, ancient weapons made from Strong Interaction Force Material. After destroying one with the ship’s rear engine particles and capturing another, the crew examined its intricate construction and considered the limits of the civilization that made it.

• Xiao Kong slowed the Flying Heaven so Yun Xinghe and the crew could identify the pursuers as Water Drops, weapons renowned for destroying fleets.
• Gu Fan tested lasers and missiles against the Water Drops, but neither energy fire nor nuclear warheads damaged them.
• Yun Xinghe ordered the Flying Heaven to let the Water Drops approach, then Xiao Kong used the rear engine’s high-speed particles to shatter one.
• Five days later, the Flying Heaven captured an energy-depleted Water Drop, and Lan Xiulong and the others examined its billion parts and miniature Matter Reactor.
• Yun Xinghe concluded that the Water Drop-making civilization excelled at small precision devices but might struggle to build large, integrated systems.

Yun Xinghe and the crew modified Flying Heaven to withstand the Water Drops, then discovered the aliens lived on the scorched 1st Planet and repelled millions of their attacks. The crew began collecting the disabled Water Drops, and Old Grandpa explained their rare technology and the aliens’ straightforward way of thinking.

• Xiao Kong proposed reinforcing Flying Heaven with Force Field Alloy and Floating Orbs so it could repel Water Drops and capture them after their energy ran low.
• The crew modified Flying Heaven, traveled to 3rd Planet, and found no signs of life there.
• Du Xiaopang spotted countless Water Drops approaching from 1st Planet, and Old Grandpa told Yun Xinghe the aliens were silicon-based lifeforms.
• Millions of Water Drops rammed Flying Heaven for three days but rebounded or ran out of energy, allowing the crew to capture them with recovery nets.
• Old Grandpa told Yun Xinghe that Water Drops were made from valuable Strong Interaction Force Material and described the aliens as a civilization that relied on simple, direct methods.

After the Three-Eyed People’s Water Drops failed against Flying Heaven, their leaders debated surrender and struggled to find a way to save their civilization before the ship arrived. Yun Xinghe learned more about the Three-Eyed People’s limitations and prepared to advance, seeing an opportunity to bring them into the Federation.

• Heng Doctor told the Three-Eyed People’s president that only Super Water Drops a hundred times larger might have a chance against the invaders, but the scientists argued over whether their people could grow larger.
• The Three-Eyed People considered surrender, fearing that the invaders might reject it or reduce them to captive specimens as they had done to another civilization.
• The president watched Flying Heaven head toward their planet and vowed that the Zhiwei Civilization would not perish under his rule.
• Old Grandpa explained to Yun Xinghe that the Three-Eyed People were tiny silicon-based beings who combined their information-wave computing power, but had strict cognitive and mathematical limits.
• After learning that the Water Drops were the Three-Eyed People’s strongest weapons and had failed to harm Flying Heaven, Yun Xinghe resolved to move forward and conquer them.

After Flying Heaven arrived at 1st Planet, Yun Xinghe used a sequence of visual riddles to invite the Three-Eyed People to negotiate. Their representatives boarded the enormous spacecraft, but Heng Doctor lost heart when he saw the towering beings waiting for him.

• Yun Xinghe proposed using contrasting images to establish communication and sent the Three-Eyed People a video depicting surrender and peace talks.
• Heng Doctor interpreted the video, and the Three-Eyed People President appointed him to lead negotiations.
• Yun Xinghe saw the tiny Three-Eyed People representatives disembark and decided he wanted them working for him under good conditions.
• Heng Doctor traveled through Flying Heaven toward the meeting hall, fearing both the destruction of his people and their enslavement.
• Heng Doctor entered the hall, saw the enormous aliens staring at him, and despaired that he would become a sinner to the Three-Eyed People.

The Blue Star Federation established communication with Heng Doctor and brought the Zhiwei Civilization into the Federation as a subsidiary. Heng Doctor revealed that the Three-Eyed People had gained another civilization as slaves without conquering it, and Yun Xinghe learned that this strange civilization was their next destination.

• Xianglan Meiqin took Heng Doctor to the laboratory, where the Federation created a Brainwave Communicator and established communication with him three days later.
• Heng Doctor described the Zhiwei Civilization’s population and potential invasion plans, while Lan Xiulong warned that the Federation could destroy it within an hour.
• Su Jialu presented Heng Doctor with the choices of resistance, submission, or joining the Federation, and Heng Doctor chose to join.
• After the agreement, Heng Doctor explained that the Three-Eyed People’s subsidiary civilization had voluntarily asked to be enslaved after years of observation.
• Old Grandpa told Yun Xinghe that the strange civilization was four light-years away and would be the Federation’s next destination.

Yun Xinghe explained how the Three-Eyed Society manipulated the Three-Eyed People into destroying Erqi civilization and exposing their own star system. Heng Doctor rejected Yun Xinghe’s account and continued to insist that the Dark Forest Law was correct.

• Heng Doctor described Erqi’s history, from the Three-Eyed Society’s rise and the technology lockdown to the Erqi People’s defeat and enslavement by the Three-Eyed People.
• Yun Xinghe and Lan Xiulong questioned how the Coordinate Transmitter could have sent a signal far enough to expose the Three-Eyed star system.
• Yun Xinghe claimed the transmitter was useless and said his ship had found the star system through its exploration mission, not by receiving coordinates.
• Heng Doctor insisted that Erqi’s slaves had revealed the Three-Eyed People’s coordinates and lamented that the Black Curtain Plan had failed.
• Yun Xinghe told Heng Doctor that the Three-Eyed Society had deceived the Three-Eyed People and used them to destroy their own kind.
• Heng Doctor rejected the accusation and defended the Dark Forest Law, while Yun Xinghe began arguing that it was wrong.

Yun Xinghe challenged Heng Doctor’s belief in the Dark Forest Law, arguing that diplomacy, unequal power, and the value of weaker civilizations made mutual annihilation an unreasonable assumption. Heng Doctor’s certainty cracked as Yun Xinghe compared civilizations to animals of different strengths rather than equal hunters.

• Yun Xinghe argued that abundant unclaimed resources and the vast distances between civilizations made inevitable resource wars unlikely.
• Yun Xinghe said war could lead to diplomacy, conquest, or integration, and that the Dark Forest Law wrongly assumed civilizations would choose mutual destruction.
• Heng Doctor defended the law, so Yun Xinghe asked why the Three-Eyed People had not destroyed Erqi Star and why the Blue Star Federation had not destroyed them.
• Heng Doctor said the Erqi Star People were slaves who posed no threat and guessed the Blue Star Federation wanted to enslave the Three-Eyed People.
• Yun Xinghe argued that advanced civilizations would have little reason to destroy weaker civilizations that could serve as useful slaves, and Heng Doctor’s belief in the law began to fracture.
• Yun Xinghe compared civilizations to animals of different strengths and concluded that narrow-mindedness, not technological backwardness, restricted their progress.

After the Three-Eyed People accepted the Blue Star Federation’s subsidiary agreement, Yun Xinghe reported the discovery to Federation leaders, who moved to secure the Zhiwei Star System. The Federation rewarded the Flying Heaven crew with improved contact with their families, and Yun Xinghe called home.

• Yun Xinghe stopped Heng Doctor from punishing the Erqi Star People and told him the Blue Star Federation now had authority over them.
• Heng Doctor returned with the Subsidiary Civilization Agreement, which the Three-Eyed People accepted with celebration, though he felt sorrowful and recognized the value of Federation protection.
• Yun Xinghe reported the Three-Eyed People’s incorporation to the Starry Sky Exploration Bureau and arranged a secure meeting with President Malatia and senior military officials.
• After watching the Zhiwei Civilization video, President Malatia ordered General Ross to dispatch the Federation’s most advanced fleet to the Zhiwei Star System.
• Yun Xinghe requested more frequent calls with the crew’s families, and Malatia approved weekly video calls of up to two hours.
• Yun Xinghe immediately placed a video call to his family on Bora Star.

Yun Xinghe reunited with his family over video, then assigned Flying Heaven’s crew an exhausting second refit that transformed the ship’s defenses, propulsion, and industrial systems. The refit ended with Flying Heaven equipped with a level-eight Material Printer.

• Yun Xinghe spoke with Yun Xiaoying and Bei Fengqi, then fled when Yun Qiaoqiao called for her children Yun Xiaoxiao and Yun Tianming.
• Yun Xinghe put Flying Heaven’s second refit into motion and made the crew work under demanding deadlines for nearly three years.
• Yun Xinghe’s refit added a twelve-millimeter Strong Interaction Force Material hull layer and upgraded the Matter Reactor to increase maximum energy output by 23%.
• Heng Doctor’s team built a level-five Material Printer, but Yun Xinghe treated it as a backup and asked the Three-Eyed People to make a level-eight model.
• Two years later, Flying Heaven gained a level-eight Material Printer capable of printing almost anything.

After refitting the Flying Heaven, Yun Xinghe recruited one million elite Three-Eyed People, led by Heng Doctor, to join the ship. As the Flying Heaven headed for the Erqi Star system, Yun Xinghe promised Heng Doctor a punishment for the Erqi Star People that would be worse than death.

• The Flying Heaven completed a three-year refit, and Yun Xinghe arranged to recruit one million Three-Eyed People elites for its crew.
• Tens of millions of Three-Eyed People applied, and Heng Doctor explained that they wanted to work with the Blue Star Federation and Xiao Kong AI and see other star systems.
• Heng Doctor led one million Three-Eyed People aboard the Flying Heaven after the Three-Eyed People President bid them farewell.
• The Flying Heaven accelerated to 0.85c and passed the Black Curtain near the edge of the Oort Cloud.
• Yun Xinghe asked Heng Doctor how the Erqi Star People should be punished, and promised to make them suffer more than death.

On Erqi Star, Xisite ruled a tightly controlled society with the Three-Eyed Society’s help and relied on sophons to suppress resistance. As the sophons failed and contact with the Three-Eyed People vanished, he realized the support sustaining his rule might be gone.

• A man secretly condemned the Three-Eyed Society’s broadcast that described its surveillance state as a perfect heaven.
• Xisite learned that V Society had evaded capture again and ordered its officers to find the resistance group within three days.
• Xisite reflected on the Three-Eyed Society’s secrets and the sophons that had enabled its rule for more than two thousand years.
• After the sophons became unusable, the Three-Eyed People failed to repair them or provide replacements despite Xisite’s repeated requests.
• Xisite’s engineers discovered that all quantum particles in the communicator had become disentangled, leaving him stunned.

V encouraged V Society as it prepared to assassinate Aivei, while secretly relying on Zhizi, an AI that had defected from the Three-Eyed Society, to evade capture. V Society killed Aivei, provoking Xisite’s fury and leaving the resistance’s next move uncertain.

• V told V Society that they would assassinate Aivei, and reassured Nasha that they would survive and win.
• V watched Xisite threaten the Guard Department captains and revealed that Zhizi, not a mole among the guards, had been helping him for five years.
• Aivei chased a woman into an alley, where she and other assassins killed his bodyguards and executed him.
• Two days later, rumors spread that V Society had killed Aivei and left a V-shaped mark at the scene.
• Xisite flew into a rage over his nephew’s death and threatened the guard captains, but could not immediately destroy V Society.

Flying Heaven arrived at Erqi Star as the Three-Eyed Society fell and the uprising descended into chaos. Yun Xinghe’s crew rescued two cryogenically frozen Erqi Star People, and one finally awakened aboard the ship.

• Yun Xinghe decided to give the Erqi Star People one final test before determining the planet’s fate.
• The V Society’s uprising overwhelmed the Three-Eyed Society after V died killing Xisite, but the revolution gave way to widespread violence and looting.
• Robots took two cryogenic chambers from a hospital during the chaos and brought them to Flying Heaven.
• Yun Qiaoqiao treated the frozen pair and helped develop a Brainwave Stimulator, gradually restoring their cellular activity and movement.
• The male Erqi Star sleeper opened his eyes and spoke, prompting Yun Xinghe and the others to realize he had awakened.

Luo Xin and Lan Li recovered after more than two thousand years in suspended animation and learned that the Three-Eyed Society had been destroyed. Yun Xinghe announced that the Blue Star Federation would stabilize Erqi Star and put Lan Li on trial, which she accepted despite Luo Xin’s protest.

• Luo Xin regained most of his memories, and Yun Qiaoqiao reported his unusual memory retention to the crew.
• Lan Li and Luo Xin spoke about waking up two thousand years later and wondered about the fate of their civilization.
• Yun Xinghe showed them footage of the Three-Eyed Society’s destruction and explained that a million robots were being sent to quell unrest on Erqi Star.
• Luo Xin explained that he had been part of the Three-Eyed Society’s reform faction and rejected the idea that his people needed to be saved or destroyed.
• Yun Xinghe announced that the Blue Star Federation would determine Erqi Star’s future and hold a Century Trial for Lan Li, who agreed to face judgment despite Luo Xin’s objection.

The Blue Star Federation restored order on Erqi Star and, at the Erqi People’s request, hunted down and judged the remaining Three-Eyed Society members. Lan Xiulong then announced a public trial for the Society’s founder, Lan Li, saying its verdict would also determine the Erqi People’s future; the Century Trial was set to begin in three days.

• A million-strong Robot Legion suppressed the riots across Erqi Star, restored essential services, and arrested or punished the rioters.
• Lan Xiulong took supreme authority and asked whether the Erqi People wanted to pursue the Three-Eyed Society or begin rebuilding, and most demanded judgment first.
• Zhizi helped the Robot Legion track down Three-Eyed Society remnants across the planet, and at least a hundred thousand were sentenced to death for their crimes.
• Lan Xiulong revealed that Lan Li, the founder of the Three-Eyed Society, had been found and announced a public trial to determine her guilt.
• Lan Xiulong said the Century Trial’s verdict would affect the Erqi People’s future and scheduled it for Round Heart Square in three days.

Lan Li stood trial for the Three-Eyed Society’s crimes, but Luo Xin successfully argued that she could not be held legally responsible for acts committed while she was frozen. With the charges defeated, Yun Xinghe told Lan Xiulong the trial could proceed to a moral test that would determine the Erqi People’s fate.

• The old judge opened Lan Li’s trial before a huge crowd, whose fury forced the court to recess when they tried to storm the platform during the evidence video.
• The court resumed the next day with tighter security, and Luo Xin argued that Lan Li had neither committed nor known about the Three-Eyed Society’s crimes.
• Over more than ten days, Luo Xin defeated the prosecution’s arguments, and none of the criminal charges against Lan Li succeeded.
• Yun Xinghe told Lan Xiulong that the trial should move on to its next stage, a moral test that would determine the Erqi People’s fate.

As the Moral Court trial of Lan Li began, Luo Xin struggled to defend her against near-universal calls for punishment. After his video revealed the suffering behind Lan Li’s actions and Nasha pleaded for forgiveness, support for punishing Lan Li fell to 75%, leaving the trial at a turning point.

• Lan Xiulong introduced the Moral Court, which would convict Lan Li if more than half the public judged her guilty.
• During the first five days, public support for punishing Lan Li climbed from 99.9% to 100% after she told the crowd they were beyond salvation and must be destroyed.
• On the sixth day, Luo Xin returned with a video showing the persecution and abuse Lan Li had endured from childhood through adulthood.
• Nasha defended Lan Li, urged the Erqi People to choose forgiveness, and recalled Uncle V’s hope for a world without hatred.
• That evening, the survey showed support for punishing Lan Li had fallen to 75%.

On the final day of Lan Li’s trial, the Erqi People faced a vote that would determine whether they could remain on their planet or be displaced by the Blue Star Federation. Luo Xin urged them to choose a new future, and the vote narrowly favored acquitting Lan Li, leaving the Erqi People’s homeland secure.

• Mr. Lan announced that the Erqi People’s vote would determine whether they stayed on their planet or left it for the Blue Star Federation’s colonial plans.
• Erqi People debated whether punishing Lan Li would save their homeland, while some argued that acquitting her could show they were ready to move beyond hatred.
• Luo Xin asked the old judge to address the people and delivered a speech imagining a hopeful future for the Erqi People beyond their painful past.
• Yun Xinghe and the others watched the vote, and Lan Xiulong announced that he had won their bet by a margin of 50.005 to 49.995.

Yun Xinghe tested Erqi Star’s civic wisdom through the people’s verdict on Lan Li, and their choice of forgiveness earned them the chance to keep their homeland. After Heng Doctor forgave Lan Li, Yun Xinghe reported Erqi Star to the Federation, whose president welcomed the prospect of the Erqi People joining as a subsidiary civilization.

• The Erqi People chose to forgive Lan Li, and Yun Xinghe agreed to let them keep Erqi Star after Yun Qiaoqiao, Xianglan Meiqin, and Uehara Aika pleaded with him.
• Three days later, Luo Xin brought Lan Li aboard the Flying Heaven, where Yun Xinghe told her to apologize to Heng Doctor and Heng Doctor chose to forgive her.
• Lan Li apologized to Heng Doctor and wept as she accepted the chance to begin a new life.
• Yun Xinghe reported Erqi Star to President Malatia and explained the Erqi People’s unusual ability to retain memories after millennia of hibernation.
• President Malatia welcomed the Erqi People’s potential entry into the Blue Star Federation as a subsidiary civilization.