Chapter Summaries

Karos led a warship carrying a Knox Particle weapon into Holy Land Helawei, believing he and its crew were carrying out a glorious mission for the Empire. As the weapon detonated, Lin Aotian and eight councilors prepared to intervene while Galon sensed danger too late.

• After his promotion, Karos learned that he had been brainwashed, but a month of treatment convinced him the Empire’s actions were necessary.
• Karos escorted a human leader aboard his warship to Holy Land Helawei and ordered it through the Spatial Fault.
• Galon opened a passage for the warship but felt an ominous, familiar unease about it.
• Lin Aotian and eight councilors secretly watched the warship and prepared their plans for the Knox Particle detonation.
• Karos’s crew activated the weapon, shouted “For the Empire,” and watched the countdown reach zero.

Galon discovered that the Alphart had used a targeted Time Bubble to contain the Knox Particles and arrived to take him home. After merging with an Inheritance Crystal containing his ancestor’s Life Source, he recovered his complete memories and prepared to leave with the Alphart, insisting that Hypnos come with him.

• Galon recognized the Knox Particles and realized that a targeted Time Bubble had frozen Hypnos while leaving him unaffected.
• Nine Alphart figures arrived, and Lin Aotian told Galon they had come to take him home because Farn had tampered with his Inherited Memory.
• Lin Aotian gave Galon the Inheritance Crystal created by the Kirin Clan, and Galon absorbed his ancestor’s Life Source and complete Inherited Memory.
• Galon calmly accepted Lin Aotian’s apology, learned that Lin Aotian was the Alphart Council Chairman, and agreed to leave for home.
• Galon insisted that Hypnos go with him.

Lin Aotian and the other council members revealed the truth about Galon’s identity and Rasti’s scheme to Galon and Hypnos. Galon agreed to take Hypnos to the Kirin Clan’s ancestral land while keeping his volatile brother under control, but the council members first needed to handle the aftermath.

• Lin Aotian resumed time, and Hypnos realized that the council members had appeared in the Central Imperial Palace.
• Galon told Hypnos that his true identity was the Alphart Civilization’s guardian holy beast and that the Kirin Clan’s duty was to protect the universe.
• Lin Aotian explained that humanity belonged to the Alphart Civilization and that the Zilun Empire had used a Knox Particle super bomb against them.
• Galon and Hypnos learned that Rasti had manipulated them, and Hypnos wanted to attack him while Galon remained calm.
• Galon promised to watch over Hypnos and explain matters at the Kirin Clan’s ancestral land, but Lin Aotian said the council needed to handle the aftermath first.

Wang Hai and Eris learned that an immense, unexplained energy eruption had occurred at Hailavi after the Doomsday Bomb detonated. Wang Hai ordered his dispersed warships to assemble and told Eris that his fleet would investigate Hailavi.

• Wang Hai received confirmation that the Doomsday Bomb had detonated, then learned that energy at its detonation point had risen beyond the Federation’s measurement limit.
• Chang Wei, a scientist from the Bailan Research Institute, judged that an energy overload had caused a self-destruction event and said it would not prevent the Doomsday Bomb from working.
• After the energy reached its Critical Point, Chang Wei reported an eruption on Hailavi’s Starry Sky Continent more powerful than ten thousand Zero-Point Missiles combined.
• Wang Hai ordered Eris to confirm the results at Hailavi and directed the Zilun Empire fleet warships to assemble at his ship.
• Eris learned of the eruption and received Wang Hai’s message that his fleet would proceed to Hailavi to investigate.

Wang Hai’s fleet reached the coordinates of Hailavi and found almost no trace of the Starry Sky Continent. Chang Wei’s analysis suggested Galon had died in the energy burst, but he warned that the data could be faked, leaving Wang Hai to authorize a day of further investigation.

• Wang Hai sent one hundred thousand disguised Nether Battleships through Hyperspace Windows toward Hailavi, then brought the fleet out of hyperspace a thousand light-years from Holy Land Helawei.
• The fleet’s preliminary scan found no wreckage at Hailavi, prompting Wang Hai to summon technical consultant Chang Wei.
• Chang Wei confirmed the coordinates were correct and found that some quark-level matter remained after most of Hailavi was annihilated.
• Chang Wei said the energy wavelength matched Galon’s, suggesting Galon had self-destructed, but cautioned that the data could have been imitated or forged.
• Wang Hai gave Chang Wei one day to compare the residual particles and investigate whether Galon had truly died.

Chang Wei failed to identify who had erased the traces on the quark particles, while Wang Hai prepared to carry out the Lockdown Plan before the Zilun Empire fleet arrived. As Eris’s fleet traveled toward them, Wang Hai began moving an unknown device through a Stargate toward the Gates of Hell.

• Chang Wei concluded that someone with technology far beyond the Federation had deliberately erased the residual links, but agreed with Wang Hai that securing the Lockdown Plan came first.
• Wang Hai learned that the Zilun Empire fleet would arrive in three hours and ordered Drones and engineering mechs to assemble a Stargate and move an unknown device.
• The fleet completed the Stargate and opened a passage to the Gates of Hell, while Wang Hai ordered the radar division to report the Zilun Empire fleet’s distance once detected.
• Marshal Eris continued toward Wang Hai’s fleet after receiving repeated replies that the Doomsday Bomb’s affected range was still being assessed.

Eris suspected that the repeated uncertainty about the Doomsday Bomb’s effects concealed a problem and ordered the Zilun Empire fleet to Hailavi. Meanwhile, Wang Hai’s team stabilized the unstable entrance to the Minor Universe of Purgatory and sent a Space Beacon inside, leaving the Space Stabilizers’ fate unresolved.

• Eris recalled the energy eruption on Hailavi and Latis’s remarks about the Minor Universe of Purgatory, then ordered the fleet to rush to Hailavi.
• Chang Wei directed the combat team to deploy Space Stabilizers around the Minor Universe entrance and raised its Spatial Stability Index enough for passage.
• Wang Hai’s Locksmith Squad used drone mechas to push the Space Beacon through the stabilized entrance.
• Chang Wei confirmed that the Space Beacon had entered the Minor Universe, allowing the Federation to open a passage from within the Viers Supercluster to Farn’s biological laboratory.
• Wang Hai asked Chang Wei how to deal with the Space Stabilizers, which could not return on their own and would leave evidence if abandoned.

Wang Hai’s fleet shut down the Space Stabilizers, moved them into the Minor Universe Channel, and destroyed the channel with a Spatial Resonance Bomb while preserving the Space Beacon’s signal. He then accused Marshal Eris of sending him to empty coordinates, leaving Eris wondering whether His Majesty Asti had deceived him.

• Chang Wei explained that the Space Stabilizers could enter the channel before its stability fell below the Critical Point, and Wang Hai ordered the fleet to shut them down and move them inside.
• Wang Hai ordered a Spatial Resonance Bomb launched into the Minor Universe Channel, and the Inferno Channel vanished seven minutes later.
• Chang Wei confirmed that the Space Beacon still provided precise dimensional and spatial coordinates after the channel was destroyed.
• Wang Hai contacted Marshal Eris and angrily demanded an explanation for the empty Inferno entrance coordinates.
• Eris was stunned by Wang Hai’s accusation and wondered whether His Majesty Asti had given him false coordinates.

Eris questioned whether Rusty had given him false coordinates for the Gate of Purgatory, but Rusty denied deceiving him and told him to investigate Hailavi. After Eris's fleet found no trace of Hailavi, life, or the Minor Universe entrance, he was left wondering whether Rusty's coordinates were fake.

• Eris told Wang Hai he would verify the situation around Hailavi in person, and Wang Hai said the area was safe if the fleet stayed more than five hundred light-years from the Starry Sky Continent.
• Eris reported to Rusty that Wang Hai had found no Gate of Purgatory at the coordinates Rusty provided, then asked whether the coordinates were correct.
• Rusty denied misleading Eris and ordered him to confirm the situation before deciding what to do next.
• Three hours later, Eris's fleet arrived near Hailavi and scanned the region, but detected nothing.
• Eris ordered a search for life and the Minor Universe entrance, and the scans found neither.
• Eris wondered whether Rusty had given him fake coordinates.

Wang Hai confronted Rusty and Eris after the Gate of Purgatory was missing, while the Zilun Empire fleet moved to surround humanity. Rusty offered compensation and requested a meeting with Lin Fan, who joined him to handle the dispute.

• Eris ordered his fleet to encircle the human fleet and deploy interference devices after learning the passage was gone.
• Wang Hai explained that Lin Fan’s Lockdown Plan had ensured Farn’s laboratory would no longer be available for the Zilun Empire to seize.
• Wang Hai accused Rusty and Eris of failing to honor their agreement, and Rusty offered compensation instead of openly turning against humanity.
• Wang Hai said Lin Fan had to decide, so Rusty ended the call and requested a virtual meeting with him.
• Lin Fan joined Rusty in the Virtual Meeting Room and asked why he had requested the meeting.

Lin Fan and Rasti reached an agreement that ended the Zilun Empire’s blockade and secured humanity’s relinquishment of its claim to Farn’s laboratory. With the Nilkenia threat temporarily settled, the Federation prepared to launch Operation Star Commander and expand into the Bosnia Supercluster.

• Rasti agreed to give the Zilun Empire resources worth about three years of its output, while humanity permanently relinquished its claim to Farn’s biological laboratory.
• Wang Hai learned that the Zilun fleet had withdrawn, then ordered his fleet to return to the Nivela Galaxy.
• Rasti planned to absorb Galon’s legacy before confronting humanity, while Lin Fan continued guiding the Federation’s scientific development.
• The Federation concentrated most of its fleet in the Bosnia Supercluster, assembling thirty-six strike groups at its Second Headquarters.
• In Federation Year 177, the Federation prepared to begin Lin Yu’s five-year Operation Star Commander to seize more than ten explored Superclusters in the Bosnia direction.

The Moy Union’s General Arno learned that a one-way Dark Energy barrier guarded a Cosmic Current leading to a chaotic Supercluster, where an Eighth Order Civilization destroyed his reconnaissance ship. He ordered a small fleet of main-force warships to investigate the barrier and assess whether the region could be his next target.

• The chapter described the Moy Union’s inherited memories and all-rounder citizens, which had helped it rise from a primitive civilization to the threshold of the Ninth Order.
• Arno’s adjutant reported that resistance groups still troubled the newly conquered Gregor Supercluster.
• The adjutant told Arno that a one-way barrier blocked passage out of a nearby chaotic Supercluster containing thirty-nine Eighth Order Civilizations and no Ninth Order Civilization.
• An Eighth Order Civilization surrounded the Moy reconnaissance ship, and it went missing after transmitting its initial findings.
• Arno ordered a small fleet of main-force warships to investigate the barrier and report its capabilities.

The Federation advanced its Star Commander operation and pursued breakthroughs in Time Technology, black cavities, and Dark Energy. After relocating the Flying Bird Research Institute to the Boötes Void, the Federation granted the Tarak Civilization exceptional territory and a fleet because Zi Luo requested protection for its former homeland and the Tarak Clan had produced two S-Class Dark Energy Manipulators.

• The Federation organized thirty attack groups into six fleets for its five-year Star Commander operation while its research institutes pursued breakthroughs in Time Technology, black cavities, and Dark Energy.
• Li Lizhi relocated the Flying Bird Research Institute to the Boötes Void after researchers found that the insect race's Minor Universe shifted coordinates too quickly to connect to from the main universe.
• The Federation decided against sending a fleet to clear the remaining insects from the Minor Universe after Zi Luo requested that the Tarak Civilization's former homeland be respected.
• The Federation granted the Tarak Civilization a high-quality galaxy cluster and a fleet of standard main-force warships, drawing criticism from other subsidiary civilizations.
• The Federation defended its special treatment of the Tarak Clan by noting that it had produced two S-Class Dark Energy Manipulators, a rare achievement among its subsidiary civilizations.

More than four years into the Star Commander plan, Aierfei’s fleet confronted a five-trillion-warship coalition in the Holtair Supercluster after inviting several promising civilizations to join the Federation. Aierfei ordered an attack focused on the civilizations she had not invited, and the native coalition watched the Federation advance with dread.

• The Tarak Civilization finished its initial cleanup of the Minor Universe, while the Flying Bird Research Institute began researching Time Technology.
• Aierfei’s five elf attack groups faced the Holtair United Fleet, which had assembled five trillion warships from twelve Eighth Order and seventy-nine Seventh Order civilizations.
• Aierfei learned that the coalition had ignored three ultimatums and grown from just over 200 billion ships to more than five trillion.
• Aierfei ordered her fleet to identify the Shadow Empire and the other invited civilizations, target the remaining fleets, and begin its assault in three minutes.
• The native coalition detected the Federation’s advance, and its officers gathered in a virtual meeting room, recalling how the Federation had destroyed one of Holtair’s Eighth Order civilizations.

Commander Lavoisier rallied the United Fleet and assigned its fifty Super Attack Groups their roles in the coming battle against humanity. The first groups began deploying while the last ten prepared to make a costly strike at humanity’s flagship, the Seran.

• Lavoisier urged Holtair’s civilizations to fight rather than become slaves and demanded that every fleet obey his orders without hesitation.
• Lavoisier assigned the First through Tenth Super Attack Groups to form a loose defensive line and delay humanity’s advance.
• Lavoisier ordered the Eleventh through Fortieth Super Attack Groups to encircle humanity from all directions while advancing at full speed.
• Lavoisier ordered the Forty-First through Fiftieth Super Attack Groups to wait behind the defensive line, then charge through it and drive their surviving ships into the Seran.

Lavoisier explained that her forces had less than a ten percent chance of victory and justified committing every fleet to a single all-out plan. As the fleets approached, Aierfei realized she had never shown the opposing civilizations the Federation’s Subordinate Civilization Agreement, but the leaders who read it felt trapped in battle and unable to accept it.

• Lavoisier told Thersus and the other leaders that simulations gave their coalition less than a ten percent chance of victory, and she defended sending all fifty Super Attack Groups without reserves.
• Tarz accepted Lavoisier’s reasoning that the coalition had to commit everything to one plan rather than hold forces back for a backup.
• Aierfei wondered why the civilizations refused to join the Federation, then realized she had asked them to become subordinate civilizations without showing them the agreement.
• Aierfei ordered her adjutant to send the agreement to the opposing leaders and claimed she had deliberately tested their backbone.
• The leaders received the agreement during the battle; two refused to read it, while six thought they might have accepted its terms earlier but were now unable to change sides.

Aierfei received the six civilizations’ agreement to join the Federation but kept them from needing to mutiny, then studied Lavoisier’s plan to break through and target her. As the fleets engaged, Aierfei concentrated her fire to open a route toward Lavoisier’s flagship, leaving him scrambling to form a counterattack.

• The six civilization leaders agreed to join the Federation but explained that their fleets were trapped among the allied formations.
• Aierfei told them to avoid real fighting and make a show of participating, then reviewed the battle plan they sent her.
• Aierfei studied Lavoisier’s record as the Undefeated War God and considered recruiting him to command the Federation’s subordinate fleets.
• As the fleets closed within three AU, Aierfei ordered her five attack groups to concentrate their fire and break through the line toward Lavoisier’s flagship.
• After three volleys, Lavoisier realized the Federation had blasted a passage through his defensive line and began planning a pincer attack with his reserve groups.

Aierfei ordered the Federal Fleet to use its Time Dilation Countermeasure Device to accelerate beyond the expected sub-light speed limit and break through the allied defenses before a second line could be completed. Lavoisier realized that the human fleet would soon expose his flagship, and declared that the advance could no longer be stopped.

• Aierfei identified that Lavoisier was forming a dense second defensive line behind the breach to trap the Federal Fleet between the two lines and the surrounding allied ships.
• Aierfei ordered the fleet to activate its Time Dilation Countermeasure Device and accelerate to Ninth War Speed, while the adjutant recalled the technology's capabilities.
• The Federal Fleet reached 0.99 times the speed of light without Time Dilation, and the adjutant reported it would break through the first line in 168 seconds.
• The allied forces detected the fleet's speed and panicked, unable to believe it could exceed the safe limit without Time Dilation.
• Lavoisier announced that the human fleet would break through before the second defensive line was complete, leaving his flagship exposed.

Lavoisier tried to turn his unavoidable decapitation into a trap for the human fleet, but Aierfei used intelligence from Federation insiders to bypass the Hyperspace Interference. The human fleet vanished from the tactical display and entered hyperspace, leaving Lavoisier's plan in jeopardy.

• Lavoisier ordered the second defensive line to retreat, his flagship to advance, and the other Super Attack Groups to prepare a pincer and encirclement around the human fleet.
• The United Fleet commanders realized Lavoisier intended to sacrifice himself so the human fleet would be trapped between the two defensive lines and the returning attack groups.
• Aierfei learned of Lavoisier's orders from insiders and ordered the Federation Fleet to use the Hyperspace Interference parameters supplied by six defecting civilizations.
• Lavoisier watched the human fleet approach and believed his timing would succeed, but the fleet disappeared from the tactical display.
• Lavoisier learned that the human fleet had opened Hyperspace Windows and entered Hyperspace Navigation.

Humanity’s fleet trapped Lavoisier’s Planet-class Warship and launched an assault to capture him. As his crew was overrun, Lavoisier tried to kill himself, but his subordinates defied his order for the first time.

• Lavoisier suspected an insider had leaked the Hyperspace Interference Device’s operating parameters as the Human Federation fleet emerged from hyperspace and surrounded him.
• Aierfei ordered the fleet to attach Tractor Beams to Lavoisier’s flagship and precisely destroy its propulsion devices and visible weapons, bringing it to a halt.
• Aierfei dispatched the Mecha Legion and Dark Energy User Legion to seize the warship and capture Lavoisier within five minutes.
• The assault force entered through a spaceport and overwhelmed the unprepared crew while the fleet suppressed any weapons that appeared.
• Lavoisier aimed his Beam Rifle at his head, but his adjutant seized it and the crew restrained him, refusing his order to let him go.