Chapter Summaries

Lin Yu endured Dolke’s powerful attack and gained insight into breaking through to S-Class Dark Energy Manipulator as he fought without technology. After crippling Dolke’s limbs and bringing the beast down, Lin Yu realized the fight was not over when Dolke began forming an energy attack in its mouth.

• Dolke’s stomp sent Lin Yu flying through a cloud of dust and left him badly injured.
• Lin Yu realized that reaching S-Class required surpassing his limits without relying on technology.
• Lin Yu struck Dolke’s vulnerable front and hind paws, repeatedly stabbing the beast as it struggled to retaliate.
• Lin Yu’s attacks weakened Dolke’s four limbs until it collapsed, prompting the Tarak Tribe members to cheer.
• Dolke opened its mouth and began forming an energy ball, leaving Lin Yu stunned that the supposedly primitive creature could use such an attack.

Dolke’s energy blast breached the Tarak Tribe’s wall, and the Taro Beasts poured in, slaughtering the tribespeople. After Zi Ling sacrificed herself to save him, Lin Yu broke through to become an S-Class Dark Energy Manipulator and killed Dolke; the Great Elder then asked whether Lin Yu could save Zi Ling, who still had a breath left.

• Dolke blasted a huge breach through the Tarak Tribe’s wall, allowing the Taro Beasts to charge into the tribe and attack its people.
• Lin Yu regretted being unable to use Dark Energy as the tribespeople were slaughtered, then Zi Ling shoved him out of Dolke’s tail strike and was fatally injured.
• Lin Yu’s anger triggered a silver-white Dark Energy Barrier, and its beam bored through Dolke’s head.
• Lin Yu realized he could now use Dark Energy without his auxiliary device and suspected he had become an S-Class Dark Energy Manipulator.
• The Great Elder told Lin Yu that Zi Ling still had a breath left and asked if he could save her.

After becoming an S-Class Dark Energy Manipulator, Lin Yu saved Zi Ling and drove off the Taro Beasts without wiping them out. He then joined the Tarak elders and began healing the tribe’s critically wounded survivors.

• Lin Yu used Dark Energy Barriers to heal Zi Ling and then flew out to confront the Taro Beast herd.
• Lin Yu killed the Taro Beast King and many of the beasts, then let the rest flee so the tribe could still hold its warrior trial.
• The elders reported that the Beast Tide had killed 27 warriors, 283 fighters, and more than sixty thousand ordinary tribespeople.
• Lin Yu agreed to treat the more than fifty people whose injuries were considered fatal.
• Lin Yu formed hundreds of tiny barriers over the wounded, and their injuries began healing visibly.

Lin Yu remained trapped on Lancer while the insect race’s forces struggled against the Purgatory Legion’s First Legion in Fellman Star Domain. Aliya asked Lin Fan to deploy Zero-Point Armament, and he agreed to send a fleet to support her.

• Lin Yu stayed in the insect race’s Minor Universe to master his new power and wait for the agreed rendezvous.
• Aliya’s forces reclaimed three star domains, but the Purgatory Legion’s First Legion returned to Fellman Star Domain and overwhelmed the insect army.
• Aliya met Lin Fan in Virtual Meeting Room Three and said her forces might not hold out for two hours.
• Aliya asked Lin Fan to use Zero-Point Armament to drive back the Purgatory Legion, even if her own swarm was caught in the blast.
• Lin Fan agreed to dispatch a fleet to Fellman Star Domain, where it would provide Zero-Point Missile support from the rear.

Lin Kexin’s Second Legion arrived behind the Zerg lines and prepared a large-scale Zero-Point Armament strike, while Heg learned that a massive human fleet had appeared. The chapter left Heg confronting the threat of the humans as the Zerg’s elite forces retreated ahead of the attack.

• Lin Kexin’s Second Legion emerged from hyperspace more than 100 AU behind the Zerg rear lines and established battlefield scans and spatial-transmission jammers.
• Lin Kexin rejected the staff group’s cautious strike plan and ordered every limit doubled, including using a Zero-Point Bomb Carrier against the suspected Ninth Order creature.
• Lin Kexin gave the Zerg five minutes to withdraw their high-order warbugs and royal bugs before the strike began.
• Aliya’s forces began retreating their high-order warbugs and royal bugs, and Heg’s Seventh Order creatures noticed the change.
• Douglas reported to Heg that the elite bugs were retreating and that at least one billion human warships had appeared behind them.

Heg tried to lead his royal guard to attack the humans but discovered that their spatial disruption technology prevented him from teleporting near the Dauntless Fleet. Meanwhile, Lin Kexin launched a massive Zero-Point Armament strike that engulfed the front lines in blinding energy spheres.

• Heg rejected Douglas's advice to gather the army and assembled his royal guard for a surprise attack on the humans.
• Heg failed to open a spatial passage to the humans because their technology interfered with teleportation.
• Lin Kexin refused to delay the strike despite some high-order insect swarms remaining in the target area.
• Lin Kexin ordered the Zero-Point Armament strike, and the bridge crew launched missiles and sent Zero-Point Bomb Carriers into hyperspace.
• Hundreds of white energy spheres erupted along the front line and swallowed insectoids and Purgatory Legion creatures within their lethal range.

The Federation launched waves of Zero-Point Missiles against Heg’s forces, forcing him to withdraw weaker troops while the rest endured the bombardment. A Zero-Point Bomb Carrier then appeared behind Heg and Douglas, and its detonation began a catastrophic spatial attack.

• The Luoshen reported that the first batch of Zero-Point Missiles had detonated and prepared to fire the second batch.
• Heg ordered troops below the Sixth Order to retreat from the Zero-Point Armament strikes, but the successive attacks left many unable to escape.
• Douglas detected a large Hyperspace Window behind him and Heg, and Heg moved to shield him as an unmanned warship emerged.
• The Luoshen activated the Zero-Point Bomb Carrier’s overloaded Warp Drive Engines and started the bomb’s detonation sequence.
• The Zero-Point Bomb Carrier triggered chain detonations that tore open Spatial Rifts and caused widespread spatial collapse.

The Federation tested Zero-Point Bombs and Missiles against the Purgatory Legion, finding that missiles were lethal to fifth-order creatures but had limited effect on higher-order entities. As Ogwell ordered his injured forces to recover, ten Hyperspace Windows opened nearby.

• A Zero-Point Bomb tore apart space around Hager and Douglas, killing much of Hager’s personal guard and leaving Douglas with three legs destroyed.
• Lin Kexin ordered all 1,725 remaining Zero-Point Missiles prepared for launch aboard the Luoshen.
• Lin Kexin learned that one missile could kill a fifth-order entity, moderately injure a sixth-order one, and barely harm most seventh-order entities.
• Lin Kexin ordered a test strike against nine sixth-order targets using between two and ten missiles per target, and fifty-four missiles launched toward them.
• The previous bombardment wiped out the insectoids along the front line, while the surviving Purgatory Creatures stopped advancing to recover.
• Ogwell ordered his injured race-level creatures to heal, unaware that ten Hyperspace Windows had opened less than fifty thousand kilometers away.

Lin Kexin reviewed tests showing that massed Zero-Point Missiles could kill Sixth Order Purgatory Creatures but not injure Seventh Order leaders, leaving the Federation reliant on its Zero-Point Bombs. On Lancer, Lin Yu sensed the returning Melohua and flew toward it, alarming the ship’s crew until he identified himself telepathically.

• Ten Zero-Point Missiles struck Ogwell, killing nearby Purgatory Creatures before the energy dissipated and leaving him furious.
• Lin Kexin reviewed the second strike results: fifty-four missiles had killed about 29,000 Sixth Order creatures, while even ten missiles had not injured a Seventh Order creature.
• Lin Kexin concluded that the Federation still needed the Zero-Point Bombs to force the enemy back, or it might have to retrieve Lin Yu early and retreat.
• A year after the Beast Tide, Lin Yu sensed the Melohua returning to Lancer and flew into the sky inside a Dark Energy barrier.
• Bai Xuan ordered the Melohua’s crew to raise a combat alarm when radar detected an unknown high-energy target approaching the ship.
• Lin Yu spoke directly into Bai Xuan’s mind and told her the approaching target was him.

After four years on Lancer, Lin Yu returned to the Melo Hua and resumed command, startling his crew with his primitive appearance and unexplained use of Dark Energy without a DEAC. Before leaving the Zerg Minor Universe, he ordered an airdrop onto Lancer, while the Tarak Tribe watched something descend from the sky.

• Bai Xuan recognized Lin Yu approaching the Melo Hua and hurried to Dock One with his uniform.
• Lin Yu landed in Dock One looking like a barbarian, and Bai Xuan told him to bathe before changing.
• After cleaning up, Lin Yu returned to the bridge and took command of the warship.
• Lin Yu ordered Bai Xuan to prepare an airdrop onto Lancer so he could leave the tribe a gift.
• Zi Ling asked the Great Elder where Lin Yu was, as the Tarak Tribe noticed something in the sky and wondered whether a god had descended.

Lin Yu returned to the Tarak Tribe aboard a Federation warship and explained to the Great Elder that he was leaving for his own world. Before departing, he gave the tribe two advanced devices, but Zi Ling tearfully stopped him as he prepared to leave.

• The Melohua descended over the Tarak Tribe, and its members knelt as Lin Yu arrived with more than a hundred mechs and two spacecraft.
• Zi Ling recognized Lin Yu, ran to him, and greeted him affectionately, while the Great Elder struggled to believe he was the same person.
• Lin Yu told the Great Elder that he had arrived on Lancer aboard the Melohua four years earlier and was returning to his own world.
• Lin Yu gave the Tarak Tribe a Knowledge Base Terminal containing Level 1–2 technology and a Warning Device intended to deter the insectoid race.
• As Lin Yu prepared to leave, Zi Ling stood in his way with tears in her eyes.

Lin Yu left Lancer with Zi Ling, while Lin Kexin assessed the Zero-Point Bomb’s limited effect on the suspected Ninth Order Creature. Ordered to hold off the Purgatory army while the allies withdrew, Lin Kexin set a trap to buy them time.

• Lin Yu agreed to take Zi Ling with him after the Great Elder pleaded, and warned that thousands of years might pass before she returned to Lancer.
• After Lin Yu departed, the Great Elder recorded Zi Ling’s journey in murals and prophesied that she would return to lead the Tarak Tribe’s rise.
• Lin Kexin received a battle assessment showing that the Zero-Point Bomb had crippled the Sixth Order Creatures, damaged the Seventh Order Creature, but barely affected the suspected Ninth Order Creature.
• Lin Kexin learned that only four Zero-Point Bomb Carriers remained and received an order from the new Gonggong to drive back the Purgatory army and buy time for the allied forces to withdraw.
• Lin Kexin ordered the four carriers to strike Target One repeatedly, leaving it one minute to recover after each attack, and hoped the target would take the bait.

After two sustained Zero-Point Bomb barrages, Hege’s forces suffered heavy losses while Hege himself spent nearly twenty percent of his energy maintaining his defenses. He began seeking a way to reach the human fleet, but another attack opened several AU away.

• Hege ordered Douglas and the nine surviving personal guards to retreat through a Space Teleportation Channel.
• After they left, Hege ordered the Leader-class creatures to search for nearby coordinates where they could open channels toward the human fleet.
• Lin Kexin opened a Hyperspace Window five AU from Hege, and another barrage of spatial attacks struck him for ten minutes.
• Hege endured the second barrage behind his Defense Barrier, which suffered no substantial damage but consumed much of his energy.
• As Hege wondered whether the humans could keep attacking, another Hyperspace Window opened several AU away.

After five Zero-Point Bomb attacks failed to injure Heger, Lin Kexin’s strategy succeeded in convincing him to retreat. She ordered the fleet to keep firing Zero-Point Missiles during the withdrawal to make the Purgatory Legion believe the Federation was genuinely trying to stop them.

• Heger considered retreating as the repeated bombardments drained his energy, then ordered the front-line leader-class creatures to open spatial passages and withdraw after the fifth blast.
• Lin Kexin saw that the Purgatory Legion had stopped advancing and begun withdrawing, confirming that her gamble had worked.
• The adjutant asked whether the fleet should cancel its planned Zero-Point Missile strike, but Lin Kexin ordered the missiles to be fired individually over roughly two hours.
• Lin Kexin explained that continued attacks would make the withdrawal look contested and prevent the enemy from suspecting the Federation had staged the bombardment to force a retreat.

Lin Kexin’s Zero-Point Missile barrage helped drive Heg into retreat, while Lin Fan’s fleet reached the Kebiniah Supercluster ahead of the approaching Purgatory forces. Lin Yu told Lin Kexin that becoming an S-Class Dark Energy Manipulator had transformed his body, leaving her to ask whether he was no longer human.

• Lin Kexin used scattered Zero-Point Missile strikes to convince Heg that humanity was panicking, and he escaped through a Spatial Rift.
• Lin Kexin coordinated with the Zerg to make their advance look like an all-out pursuit of the retreating Purgatory Legion.
• Lin Fan’s fleet arrived at Lawell and learned the Xuanming Mech would arrive in five days, one day before the Purgatory forces were expected.
• Lin Fan reassured Liang Xue that Lin Yu could master the unfamiliar Xuanming Mech in time.
• Lin Kexin asked Lin Yu about his S-Class abilities, and he explained that his body had evolved enough to use Dark Energy without an auxiliary device.
• Lin Kexin reacted to Lin Yu’s explanation by asking whether he was no longer human.

Lin Yu explained to Lin Kexin that Federation Dark Energy talent limits only applied to using auxiliary devices, while a life-level transition would allow genuine Dark Energy use, though such evolution was almost impossible for humanity. Five days later, Wei arrived at the new Gonggong battle star, where workers unloaded the custom Xuanming Mech built for Lin Yu.

• Lin Yu told Lin Kexin that S-Class Dark Energy Manipulators were only at the threshold of genuine Dark Energy use and that life-level evolution let people use Dark Energy by instinct.
• Lin Kexin realized her lack of talent for using an Auxiliary Computing Device did not rule out becoming a genuine Dark Energy User, but Lin Yu warned that a life-level transition was nearly impossible.
• Lin Yu said Wei would arrive in a few days so they could ask her about the Dark Energy system, and Lin Kexin stopped berating him.
• Five days later, Wei's research ship reached the new Gonggong battle star in the Lawell Current Node, escorted by a Sector-Class Fleet.
• More than a hundred industrial mechs unloaded Lin Yu's custom Xuanming Mech, leaving everyone stunned by its appearance.

Wei built Lin Yu the enormous Xuanming Mech to withstand his full S-Class Dark Energy, and Lin Yu began urgently training to control it before the Purgatory Legion arrived. His first attempt to form a barrier failed, leaving him determined to master the difficult mech with less than thirty hours remaining.

• Wei explained that the Xuanming Mech’s custom Alpha Metal computing device and warship propulsion system had forced it to become enormous.
• Lin Yu was summoned to the New Gonggong Battlestar and received intensive instruction on operating the Xuanming Mech.
• With twenty-eight hours until the predicted arrival of the Purgatory Legion, Lin Yu tested the Xuanming Mech’s full power in the void of Lawell.
• Lin Yu failed to complete a diamond-shaped barrier because the powerful mech was too difficult for him to control.
• Lin Yu vowed to tame the Xuanming Mech before Hegel’s Purgatory Legion arrived.

Lin Yu tested the strength of his Dark Energy Attack against Black Armor Norton, the Seventh Order leader of Hegg’s heavily armored vanguard. His attack shattered Norton’s shield but failed to damage its body, leaving the battle unresolved.

• Black Armor Norton and its clan creatures emerged from the Cosmic Current into Lawell.
• Lin Yu identified the Black Armor race’s exceptional defenses and chose Norton as his first target.
• Lin Yu launched a Dark Energy Attack that destroyed hundreds of clan creatures and clashed with Norton’s shield.
• After seven seconds, Lin Yu’s attack shattered Norton’s shield, but its depleted energy could not harm Norton.

Lin Yu finished testing the Xuanming Mech’s power and unleashed his new Inductive Dark Energy Compression Cannon at Black Armor Norton’s defensive formation. The enormous beam raced toward Norton, leaving the distant Federal Fleet and Aliya stunned by its destructive force.

• Lin Yu’s probing attack shattered Black Armor Norton’s energy defense barrier, humiliating Norton without revealing the attacker’s location.
• Norton ordered the Black Armor race to form a spherical Joint Shield around the ocean current exit before Hegg and the Purgatory First Legion arrived.
• Lin Yu judged the Joint Shield unable to stop him and prepared to clear the area before the ninth-order enemy arrived.
• Lin Yu gathered Dark Energy into seven diamond-shaped barriers and used the six smaller ones to compress energy into the central barrier.
• Lin Yu fired the Inductive Dark Energy Compression Cannon, sending a massive silver-white beam crackling with red lightning toward Black Armor Norton.

Lin Yu’s Inductive Dark Energy Compression Cannon pierced through Black Armor Norton’s defenses and triggered a spreading, cancer-like destruction inside its body. As Norton howled in pain, Wei explained the altered energy’s effect, leaving Lin Yu to wonder whether he had brought cancer to the Biological Civilization system.

• Lin Yu’s beam shattered Black Armor Norton’s shield formation and defensive shell before piercing through its body.
• Black Armor Norton dismissed the small wound, unaware that crimson lightning was spreading damage through its internal tissue.
• Norton realized the destruction was rapidly expanding and cried out in pain as it began eroding its body.
• Lin Yu stopped preparing another attack and asked Wei what was happening.
• Wei reported that the cannon’s altered Dark Energy spread through Norton like cancer cells and destroyed its tissue.
• Lin Yu wondered whether he had brought the age of cancer to the Biological Civilization system.