Chapter Summaries

Lin Fan’s forces destroyed the Miluo Empire’s main garrison zones, then joined Gramm United in wiping out the two empires’ scattered legions. After decades of clearing their territories, the alliance prepared to move in.

• Lin Fan ordered the alliance to attack the Miluo Empire’s garrison zones and gave Gramm United three terms, including disbanding and joining the alliance.
• Tommy and the other leaders of Gramm United voted to accept Lin Fan’s demands, and Gramm United prepared two hundred legions for the alliance’s third phase.
• The alliance attacked the Miluo Empire’s three largest garrison zones, destroying them within five hours and annihilating more than two hundred Main Legions.
• The alliance and Gramm United encircled and destroyed the two empires’ scattered Main Legions over three months, after which Lin Fan ordered their territories cleared.
• By Federation Year 1268, the alliance had spent thirty years clearing the nearly four thousand universes held by the two empires.

By Federation Year 1688, the Azure Dragon Alliance had expanded to sixty-eight Black Hole Cavity Realms, but the Federation faced a Noreya Empire invasion and a nearby Cleanser force. Luo Li warned Lin Fan that the Cleanser army was less than five hundred thousand Standard Black Hole Units away, and Lin Fan decided to convene the Azure Dragon Universe's major powers.

• The Azure Dragon Alliance grew to sixty-eight Black Hole Cavity Realms, while the Federation controlled eighteen.
• The Black and White Church began a civil war against the Xilbeila Empire and overwhelmed its military with a million Chaos Lifeforms.
• The Noreya Empire advanced toward the Federation, leaving only five Black Hole Cavity Realms between its forces and the Federation.
• Luo Li summoned Lin Fan to the Chaos Research Institute and told him the Transcendence Device had detected a Cleanser army nearby.
• Luo Li estimated that the Cleanser force had at least a thousand legions, and Lin Fan decided to gather the major local powers to discuss a response.

Lin Fan told the Federation, Alphart Civilization, and Biological Civilization that the Cleaners were approaching and could arrive in as little as twenty years, prompting the alliance to prepare for war. The meeting ended with Luo Li and Bai Zhi discussing weapons, though Bai Zhi’s answers frustrated Lin Fan.

• Lin Fan warned the meeting that the Cleaners were only five Black Hole Cavity Realms away and urged everyone to prepare for battle.
• The alliance agreed to Lin Fan’s defense plans, and he ordered Lin Aotian to prioritize Azure Dragon consciousness synchronization in 4,980 universes within twenty years.
• Lin Fan told Galon to accelerate the biological Chaos armor project and told Lin Zhen to lift enlistment restrictions and expand the Federal Fleet to five hundred fleets.
• Lin Fan asked Luo Li whether a strategic-level weapon could be developed within twenty years, and Luo Li consulted Bai Zhi.
• Bai Zhi said a weapon capable of striking across Black Hole Cavity Realms and destroying a universe could not be built, leaving Lin Fan asking what the strongest feasible weapon was.

Lin Fan approved plans for a simplified Chaos Ray as the Federation prepared for an approaching threat, while the Tailo Empire inferred the danger and chose to support the Federation. The chapter ended with Valeri ordering the Empire to mobilize its industry, expand its fleets, and monitor the Alliance.

• Bai Zhi explained that the Federation could build a simplified Chaos Ray with a range of one hundred Standard Black Hole Units, and Lin Fan approved its development.
• The Federation announced plans to expand its legions, exchanged newly acquired universes, and urged Alliance civilizations to double their fleets within twenty years.
• Valeri worried that the Federation was preparing to destroy the Alliance, but Montero argued that a powerful enemy was approaching and the Federation needed the Alliance to remain stable.
• Montero urged Valeri to use the crisis to prove the Tailo Empire's loyalty to the Federation.
• Valeri ordered the Tailo Empire to shift production toward military supplies, mobilize resource mining, build as many fleets as possible, and report any Alliance unrest.

Lin Zhen and Lin Fan considered reviving the Azure Dragon Group Expansion Plan after Valeri’s actions against the Tyr Kingdom. After learning about the Black Hole Cavity Consciousness and the Cleansers, Valeri eagerly agreed to let the Tailo Empire join the Azure Dragon Universe Consciousness.

• Lin Fan identified Montero as the likely source of the Tailo Empire’s strategy to curb the Tyr Kingdom’s influence.
• Valeri warned civilizations against joining the Tyr Kingdom’s protest, and most of the alliance cut off trade with the Tyr Kingdom.
• Lin Zhen proposed giving the Tailo Empire a chance to join the Azure Dragon Group Expansion Plan, and Lin Fan agreed to explain the plan and the coming threats to Valeri.
• Lin Zhen and Lin Fan told Valeri about the Black Hole Cavity Consciousness and the Cleansers in a virtual meeting.
• Valeri eagerly agreed to join the plan, expecting the Tailo Empire to avoid rejection and suppression in universes synchronized with the Azure Dragon Consciousness.

At the Alliance’s core civilization conference, Lin Zhen reported that the Scavengers were advancing slowly but exterminating every living thing in each Black Hole Cavity Realm they reached. With the Alliance preparing its defenses, Montero proposed sending volunteers on a Suicidal Reconnaissance mission to infiltrate the Scavengers and gather or manipulate intelligence.

• Valeri’s Tailo Empire completed mass production of its Azure Dragon transformation serum, beginning its path to becoming a true core member of the Alliance.
• Twenty years after the Scavengers were discovered, Lin Zhen reported that they had crossed three Black Hole Cavity Realms and slaughtered all life in each one.
• Lin Fan described the Alliance’s deployment of fleets, Black Hole Lifeforms, synchronized universes, and Chaos Ray activation devices across the three expected front-line realms.
• Lin Zhen told the Alliance’s leaders to keep developing their forces before the Scavengers arrived.
• Montero proposed sending volunteers with rewritten memories through the Cross-border Channel to infiltrate the Scavengers’ next destination, gather intelligence, and possibly provide false information.

Lin Fan approved Montero’s “Dark Seed” plan, which sent a million Ketis Kingdom volunteers into the Del Realm with fabricated memories to observe how the Cleaners operated. Years later, the Noreya Expeditionary Force arrived and began slaughtering life across the realm, leaving Ondert’s fleet trapped with no safe way to flee.

• Lin Zhen consulted Lin Fan about Montero’s proposal, and Lin Fan approved it as feasible with careful planning.
• Montero spent a month refining and simulating “Dark Seed,” then launched it using more than a million volunteers from the Ketis Kingdom, whose memories were altered to make them believe they were exiles from the Kunsa Realm.
• Four years later, Ondert’s fleet searched the Del Realm for a suitable refuge while maintaining contact with what they believed was their homeland in the Kunsa Realm.
• The Noreya Expeditionary Force arrived in the Del Realm, where Commander Mohan ordered the cleansing of its twenty-seven God-tier civilizations.
• As the Del Realm fell into ruin, Ondert refused to use the Ketis Kingdom’s final Cross-border Device charge to rescue his fleet, since doing so would eliminate the Kingdom’s last means of evacuation.

After reviewing intelligence on the Cleaners’ overwhelming strength, Lin Fan directed Montero to seek contact through the White Empire’s ties to the Black and White Church. Montero passed the plan to Ondert, and the Noreya commander Mohan agreed to speak with the civilization claiming to be a Xilbeila Empire seed.

• Ondert sent intelligence about the Cleaners to the Kunsa Realm so the kingdom could prepare to flee if necessary.
• Montero presented the intelligence at the Azure Dragon Alliance conference, where simulations showed the Cleaners could badly outmatch Federation and Alliance fleets.
• Lin Fan told Montero to consult Ziegler and use the White Empire’s connection to the Black and White Church to improve the chance of contacting the Cleaners.
• Montero contacted Ondert and gave him instructions for approaching the Cleaners while posing as a Kadithian.
• Mohan learned that a civilization from the Kunsa Realm claimed loyalty to the Lord of Darkness and ties to the Xilbeila Empire, then ordered that contact be established so he could speak with them.

Ondert deceived Mohan into accepting the Alliance’s intelligence about the Heretics, while the Alliance prepared its defenses in Kadi Realm to lure in the Noreya Empire’s expeditionary army. As the army arrived, Lin Fan watched the planned battle begin.

• Ondert posed as a civilization under the Xilbeila Empire, gave Mohan intelligence about the Heretics, and secured friendly status for his fleet.
• Montero announced that the planted operative plan’s second phase had succeeded, raising the Alliance’s estimated chance of victory to fifty percent.
• Lin Fan ordered Alliance forces to gather in Kadi Realm and camouflage defenses across the rest of the realm to conceal the real deployment.
• The Noreya Empire’s expeditionary army opened a Cross-border Channel at the weak-looking position the Alliance had chosen as its trap.
• Lin Fan saw the expeditionary army appear on the real-time battlefield model and announced its arrival.

The Alliance lured the Noreya Empire into a narrow corridor while its defenders retreated toward Chaos One. As the enemy rushed to destroy the superweapon, Lin Fan ordered it to fire, leaving the attack’s outcome unresolved.

• Mohan learned that the Noreya Empire’s route into the Kadi Realm was the weakest point in the defenses and ordered his fleets to secure the corridor.
• Lin Fan’s five legions fought a delaying action against the Noreya Empire’s growing force, suffering heavy losses as they retreated.
• Lin Fan assessed the enemy as a peak fourth-tier civilization and raised the Alliance’s estimated chance of victory to 70%.
• Mohan ordered his fleets to push down the corridor and destroy the superweapon, accepting that its single shot might cost several legions.
• The Alliance cleared the firing line, and Lin Fan ordered Chaos One to fire as the Noreya Empire’s fleets rushed toward it.

The Federation used the Chaos Ray to cripple the Noreya Empire’s frontline fleets, then fought to hold the Cross-border Channel against the arriving forces. Lin Fan sent over a hundred legions through the enemy’s own channel to destroy Norea’s Cross-border Device and strand the expeditionary force in the Black Hole Gap.

• Liang Xue reported that the Chaos Ray had destroyed more than sixty Noreya legions and severely damaged most of the remaining warships, as Chaos One began recharging.
• Lin Fan ordered the arriving Federation fleets to clear the crippled enemy ships and advance toward the channel entrance while watching the Alliance Fleet.
• Mohan learned that the attack had been a sweeping ray rather than the area-damage weapon described in his intelligence, but could not reach Ondert and ordered his frontline fleets to hold.
• The Federation cleared the damaged Noreya fleets, then engaged more than twenty legions arriving through the Cross-border Channel in a confined battle.
• Lin Fan sent more than a hundred Federation legions through the Noreya Empire’s channel toward the guarded Cross-border Device in the Lyle Realm.

Lin Fan’s plan sent Lin Yu’s special fleet through the Noreya Empire’s own Cross-border Channel to destroy its device in the Lyle Realm while the Federation held off the Empire’s forces. The assault caught the defenders by surprise, and Mohan realized the Empire had been lured into opening its channel at a location the Federation anticipated.

• Lin Fan planned to exploit the Noreya Empire’s Cross-border Channel, relying on Lin Yu’s hundred legions to destroy the device before the Empire could send reinforcements.
• Federation fleets poured into the Lyle Realm through the channel and attacked the ten legions guarding its exit.
• The Federation suffered heavy losses at first, but reinforcements and the Civilization Guardian Legion turned the battle around; no Noreya Black Hole Lifeforms had appeared yet.
• Mohan learned from Vilette that the Federation had attacked the Cross-border Device by traveling through the Empire’s own channel.
• Mohan ordered Vilette to hold out for twenty hours and realized false intelligence had led him to open the channel where the Federation expected.

The Federation used hidden Chaos Ray weapons to devastate the Noreya Empire fleet after Mohan ordered his forces to spread out. Mohan awaited the Shadow Legion, believing it could reverse the battle, while the fighting continued at Lyle Realm and the Kadi Realm.

• Vilette’s defenders at Lyle Realm struggled to hold off more than ten Federal legions as reinforcements poured through the channel.
• Mohan realized the corridor’s supposed defensive systems were a trick and ordered his fleets to spread out and attack.
• Lin Fan’s command center coordinated its fleet deployment with Chaos Two and Chaos Three, drawing the enemy into a long battle line.
• Chaos Two and Chaos Three fired their Chaos Rays, destroying more than half of the Noreya Empire fleet along the battle line and damaging nearby ships.
• Montero led the concealed Alliance Fleet to intercept enemy reinforcements at the channel entrance while the Federal Fleet attacked the stricken forces.
• Mohan learned the Shadow Legion would reach the Kadi Realm in three minutes and believed it could turn the battle around.

Mohan’s Noreya Seventh Fleet Cluster sent its elite Shadow Legion into the Kadi Realm, where its advanced warships and Black Hole Lifeforms threatened to overwhelm the Alliance. Lin Fan ordered the Federation’s Civilization Guardian Legion into battle, while in the Lyle Realm Lin Yu led the same kind of force against the Cross-border Device.

• Mohan’s Shadow Legion, equipped with powerful Shadow Warships and two hundred thousand Black Hole Lifeforms, arrived ahead of the rest of his fleet.
• Lin Fan sent most Federation fleets to reinforce Montero’s hard-pressed Alliance forces at the channel entrance.
• The Shadow Legion emerged from the channel, pierced through Alliance ships with its weapons, and sent Black Hole Lifeforms charging into the defensive line.
• Lin Fan identified the Shadow Legion’s weaker Black Hole Lifeforms and deployed the Civilization Guardian Legion, planning to command it himself.
• In the Lyle Realm, Lin Yu led the Civilization Guardian Legion through the enemy counterattack to destroy the Cross-border Device.

The Federation and Azure Dragon Alliance defeated the Noreya Empire’s first expeditionary force after destroying its Cross-border Device and cutting off reinforcements. Lin Fan reviewed the devastating losses and warned that a much larger second expedition could arrive within a hundred years.

• Lin Yu led the Civilization Guardian Legion through the Noreya Empire’s defenses in the Lyle Realm and destroyed the Cross-border Device.
• Lin Fan’s forces and nearly a hundred arriving Federation legions overwhelmed the Shadow Legion in the Kadi Realm, while Mohan learned that the channel was failing and no reinforcements would arrive.
• The Cross-border Channel collapsed, exiling the Seventh Fleet Group and breaking the Shadow Legion’s morale; the Federation and Alliance destroyed the final Shadow Legion warship.
• Lin Fan reviewed the fleets’ enormous casualties and concluded that the Noreya Empire would likely send a larger expeditionary force within a hundred years.
• Lin Fan recognized that the Federation and Alliance had to use the coming century to strengthen themselves for the next invasion.

Emperor Toreya ordered the Noreya Empire to assemble its forces for an expedition against the Heretics ten years later. At the Azure Dragon Alliance meeting, Montero asked Lin Fan to fully supply the Tailo Empire with Federation-standard warships and offered the Federation control over their backdoors and self-destruct systems.

• Toreya blamed the Seventh Fleet cluster's defeat on being outmaneuvered and ordered the other seven fleet clusters, the Shadow Legions, and his Royal Guard Legion to prepare for his expedition.
• Montero proposed that the Federation fully supply the Tailo Empire with Federation-standard warships, shocking the Azure Dragon Alliance leaders.
• Valeri warned Montero that selling the Federation's own warships could have serious consequences, and Lin Fan asked why the Tailo Empire should receive them.
• Montero offered to accept any Federation backdoors and hand over self-destruct control of every warship.

Lin Fan offered the Alliance’s core civilizations cheap Joint Warships, easing Montero’s concerns about Federation control of self-destruct systems. The meeting ended with Ondert learning that the Federation had survived and that the war was over.

• Lin Fan revealed the Joint Warship and offered it to Alliance core members for less than half the usual price, without requiring control over its self-destruct systems.
• Montero examined the Joint Warship’s crew and systems, then enthusiastically agreed it could defeat the Noreya Empire.
• Lin Fan explained that the Federation planned to give its current ships to non-core civilizations while developing a stronger mainstay warship within three years.
• Montero received a call from Ondert, who asked whether the Noreya Empire had destroyed the Human Federation and said he wanted to go home.
• Lin Fan told Montero to bring Ondert back and restore his backup memories, and Ondert realized the Federation had survived as the meeting room laughed.

The Federation delayed its new Azure Dragon class warships because of a shortage of materials, then succeeded with a powerful dual-core design and began building up its fleet. In 1833, after detecting more than seven thousand Noreya Empire fleets approaching, Lin Fan decided to take the initiative and chose a site for the decisive battle.

• Lin Fan ordered the Federation to refit its fleet with Joint Warships while Luo Li continued developing the Azure Dragon class energy system.
• Luo Li developed the Dual-Core Chaos Energy Core Device, and the Azure Dragon class project succeeded in 1738 with performance far beyond the Joint Warship and a crew of only twenty-four.
• In 1833, Luo Li's detection technology discovered more than seven thousand Noreya Empire fleets advancing toward alliance territory.
• Lin Fan told the alliance's military leaders that war could begin within twenty years and announced that he would take the initiative.
• Lin Fan explained that the enemy would attack through three Black Hole Cavity Realms and selected a location for the decisive battle.

Lin Fan chose the Kousha Realm as the place to confront the Norea Empire, but Emperor Toreya split his forces to attack from several realms at once. Lin Fan rejected Montero’s suggestion to withdraw and hinted at a risky version of his previous tactic, leaving Montero shocked by what he might be planning.

• Lin Fan selected the Kousha Realm as the interception point because the Norea Empire would lose five years by bypassing it.
• After learning that more than a thousand Alliance legions were in Kousha, Emperor Toreya ordered four fleet clusters to approach through four neighboring realms and prepare simultaneous attacks.
• Montero urged Lin Fan to withdraw after the enemy divided its forces, but Lin Fan asked him to assess their chances against an enemy commander of different abilities.
• Lin Fan said conventional methods offered little chance of victory and asked what would happen if he repeated his previous tactic.
• Montero realized Lin Fan might attempt another reverse crossing of the Cross-border Channel and saw that the plan was feasible but carried a major problem.

Toreya’s five armies entered the Kousha Realm expecting to face Heretics’ defenses, but discovered the defensive lines were decoys. Lin Fan had instead sent four groups of 400 legions through the channels to attack the Noreya Empire’s rear, though the Federation’s gradual arrival meant the defenders might not fall before the four armies exited the channels.

• Toreya ordered all five armies to activate their Cross-border Devices and enter the Kousha Realm.
• The Noreya vanguards found only false targets at the expected defensive lines, with no Heretics warships present.
• Toreya realized the Heretics might be attacking the rear and ordered the other four armies to prepare for battle.
• Lin Fan’s four groups, each containing 150 Federal legions and 250 Alliance legions, began attacking the four Black Hole Cavity Realms.
• The Federation forces gradually outnumbered the 100 Noreya legions defending each location, but the simulation indicated they might need a full day to destroy them.
• Toreya learned the attacks were unlikely to stop his armies from exiting the channels and felt relieved that the worst-case scenario had not occurred.