Chapter Summaries

Lin Yu led his elite force through the Noreya Empire’s defenses to reach the Imperial Capital star system, where millions of Black Hole Lifeforms stalled their advance. As Lin Fan ordered the Alliance army to press forward, the 21st Detachment faced mounting casualties and the risk of being hunted by the Empire’s forces.

• Lin Yu and Zhang Sai coordinated an assault on the Empire’s defenses, and the Alliance fleet opened a corridor with its Chaos Ray Carriers.
• Lin Yu led more than 30,000 Black Hole Lifeforms through the first defensive line, then broke through the Empire’s three fleet lines six hours later at the cost of over a thousand Guardian casualties.
• Lin Yu’s force entered the Imperial Capital star system and found millions of early First Tier Black Hole Lifeforms emerging from its planets.
• Lin Yu and Zhang Sai fought through the overwhelming enemy numbers; after the Empire lost more than ten million fighters, Lin Yu ordered the units to reform and charge through the defenses.
• Lin Fan learned that nearly 3,000 members of the 21st Detachment had fallen and ordered the Alliance army to advance once the suicide planets were destroyed, warning that the detachment could be trapped if the Empire sent its third-line legions after Lin Yu.

Lin Yu led the Twenty-First Detachment through the Black Hole Lifeforms and destroyed the Empire’s Black Hole Cavity Particle Annihilation Device with a Mimic Chaos Ray. He chose to evade enemy forces inside the universe while awaiting the Alliance fleet, as Radu ordered two thousand Imperial legions to pursue them.

• Lin Yu and the Twenty-First Detachment advanced through millions of First Tier Black Hole Lifeforms until the device entered attack range.
• Lin Yu’s Chaos Mech converted energy and fired a Mimic Chaos Ray, destroying the device while Zhang Sai and the Guardians protected him.
• Lin Yu ordered the exhausted detachment to retreat and explained they would evade enemy forces inside the universe until the Alliance main fleet arrived.
• Radu saw the device’s destruction and ordered two thousand legions from the third defensive line to enter the mother universe and annihilate the Federation Guardians.

The Federation broke through the Noreya Empire’s defenses, killed Radu, and conquered the Empire despite the birth of a new Divine Envoy. When the Noreya Empire fell in Federation Year 2255, the Federation seized its intact database and learned the locations and basic information of the other sixteen Sweepers.

• The Federation fleet broke through the Empire’s second defensive line while Lin Yu escaped into Black Hole Cavity Space, and Federation forces later invaded the home universe and killed Radu.
• With its Divine Envoy dead, the Noreya Empire lost morale, allowing Alliance forces to capture more than eighty percent of its Black Hole Cavity Realms over thirty-six years.
• A new Fourth Tier Divine Envoy restored the Empire’s resolve, but its depleted fleets and black hole lifeforms could not stop the Federation’s advance.
• In Federation Year 2255, the Alliance conquered and cleansed the Noreya Empire’s territory, making it the first of the seventeen Sweepers to fall.
• The Civilization Guardian Legion captured the new imperial capital before its database was destroyed, and the Federation recovered information about the other sixteen Sweepers.

Lin Fan reviewed the map of the Cleaners and warned the Azure Dragon Alliance that the Dasaross Empire, a nearby Peak Fifth-order Black Hole Civilization, could attack at any time. With the Alliance’s core civilizations pledging support, he proposed ambushing its first expeditionary force.

• Lin Fan saw that the Xilbeila Empire, the strongest Cleaner, had the smallest territory and was marked as being in a civil war.
• At a meeting of the Azure Dragon Alliance’s core civilizations, Lin Fan identified the Dasaross Empire as the nearest remaining Cleaner, 1,780 Black Hole Cavity Realms away.
• Lin Fan warned that the Dasaross Empire might already have sent an expeditionary force and that the other Cleaners would target the Alliance’s civilizations as Heretics.
• The Tailo Empire, Gem Empire, Divine Radiance Civilization, and other core civilizations pledged their support to Lin Fan.
• Lin Fan proposed ambushing the Dasaross Empire’s first expeditionary force.

Lin Fan explained his plan to ambush the Dasaross Empire’s expeditionary fleet 178 times along the Meridian Valley Route using hidden Chaos Ray Carriers. The gathered leaders understood the plan, which depended on new stealth technology, and Lin Fan began arranging the battle plan.

• The leaders questioned how Lin Fan could stage an ambush across the vast distance separating the Alliance and the Dasaross Empire.
• Lin Fan identified a 178-realm unavoidable route, named it the Meridian Valley Route, and proposed ambushing the enemy in every realm along it.
• Lin Fan explained that Chaos Ray Carriers would detect incoming Cross-border Channels, fire once at the arriving fleets, and self-destruct.
• Montero pointed out that the enemy could destroy the carriers after discovering the ambush, but Lin Fan said new stealth technology would keep them hidden until they fired.
• The leaders raised no further questions, and Lin Fan began assigning the battle plan.

Lin Fan convinced Luo Li to devote 178 Black Hole Mimicry Devices to the Meridian Valley ambush plan, then sent an Alliance expeditionary fleet to Meridian Valley 178. After a 25-year voyage, the fleet reached the realm, where the Violet Empire had massed troops to defend the Cross-border Channel.

• Lin Fan persuaded Luo Li that using 178 Black Hole Mimicry Devices as one-time consumables on Chaos Ray Carriers would help cripple the Dasaross Empire and buy the Federation nearly 2,000 years.
• In Federation Year 2260, Wang Hai led a 1,000-legion expeditionary fleet, with Montero commanding the Alliance contingent, toward Meridian Valley 178.
• The fleet avoided confrontations with local civilizations during its 25-year journey by choosing remote crossing points and bypassing two realms inhabited by third-tier civilizations.
• The fleet arrived at Meridian Valley 178, a realm controlled by the peak third-tier Violet Empire.
• The Violet Empire gathered more than 1,000 legions at the Cross-border Channel and continued assembling reinforcements.

The Alliance swiftly overwhelmed the Violet Empire, which requested unconditional surrender less than an hour into the battle. Lin Fan agreed to accept it under three conditions, and Empress Karen prepared to negotiate while fearing the demands would be severe.

• The Alliance's technologically superior forces routed the Violet Empire's fleet, prompting Empress Karen to order Eliana to seek contact with the attackers.
• The Violet Empire sent an unconditional surrender request, and Wang Hai told Montero to continue the offensive while he sought Lin Fan's decision.
• Montero recommended accepting the surrender so the Alliance could use the Violet Empire to develop the Meridian Valley Route's resources.
• Lin Fan agreed to accept surrender if the Violet Empire joined the Azure Dragon Alliance, developed other Meridian Valley realms for a thousand years, and relocated most of its population into Alliance territory.
• Eliana told Karen that the Alliance had agreed to a three-hour ceasefire to discuss surrender, and Karen prepared to meet with them.

Wang Hai negotiated the Violet Empire’s relocation and entry into the Alliance, explaining that a hostile civilization was advancing along the Meridian Valley Route. After examinations found no human connection, the Violet Empire formally joined the Alliance, and Montero’s forces continued along the route to conquer its remaining realms.

• Wang Hai presented the Alliance’s three conditions to Karen, who agreed after learning that relocation would protect the Violet Empire from an approaching exterminating civilization.
• Karen consented to a physical examination, and Wang Hai’s tests of Imperial soldiers found that the Violet people had no relation to humanity.
• The Alliance and the Violet Empire completed their negotiations and signed a treaty that made the Empire an Alliance member.
• Wang Hai stayed at Meridian Valley 178 while Montero led seven hundred Alliance legions onward to conquer more than a hundred Black Hole Cavity Realms.

The Federation advanced its technology and prepared new warship and realm-folding projects as the Dasaross Empire’s fleet approached Alliance territory. Meanwhile, the Xilbeila Empire was nearly overrun by the Black and White Church until a guard arrived with a battered book that might hold a solution.

• By Federation Year 2498, the Violet Empire had completed its migration and received eighteen Black Hole Cavity Realms from the Federation.
• The Federation reached Fifth Order foundational technology, allowing Luo Li, Jiang Xinlan, and Bai Zhi to begin a second-generation Canglong-class Warship project and test a faster Realm Folding System.
• Commander Sherris ordered three thousand legions to continue cleansing realms while the Dasaross Empire’s main fleet hurried toward the Heretic territory.
• The Black and White Church captured nearly all of the Xilbeila Empire’s realms, and Emperor Carrot realized that reclaimed realms could not be held while their people remained under the Black Hole Cavity Consciousness’s influence.
• A guard rushed into the main hall and told Emperor Carrot that he had found a tattered book.

The Federation detected the Dasaross Empire’s massive expeditionary fleet, and Lin Fan prepared the Federation for the coming conflict. At Meridian Valley 148, the Federal Guard Fleet arrived, revealing its Black Hole Lifeform captains and Leviathan-class warships capable of reaching near Seventh Tier combat power.

• Cartero found a book describing the method he sought, but learned it could not be implemented, leaving the Xilbeila Empire in despair.
• In Federation Year 2965, the Federation’s Cross-border Scanning Device detected a fleet of more than thirty thousand legions, which Lin Fan identified as the Dasaross Empire’s expeditionary force.
• Lin Fan ordered Meridian Valley 149 through 178 evacuated, assembled the route fleet at Meridian Valley 148, and summoned the Federal Guard Fleet.
• In Federation Year 2974, the one-legion Federal Guard Fleet arrived at Meridian Valley 148, equipped with Leviathan-class warships whose performance depended on their Black Hole Lifeform captains.

The Dasaross Empire fleet entered the Meridian Valley Route and lost about a hundred legions to a surprise attack by a hidden Chaos Ray Carrier. Lin Yu’s revised plan kept additional carriers in reserve to confuse and exhaust the Imperial soldiers, and another attack began as the fleet relaxed its guard.

• Sherris warned his advance fleet to proceed cautiously into Violet Empire territory, unaware that a hidden Chaos Ray Carrier was waiting in Meridian Valley 178.
• The carrier ambushed the Dasaross fleet at the channel entrance, destroyed much of its formation, and self-destructed before the fleet could retaliate.
• Sherris identified the attacker as a Heretics strategic-level Superweapon and learned that the strike had destroyed or severely damaged the equivalent of a hundred legions.
• Liang Xue reported the attack’s success to Lin Yu, who ordered the second carrier to remain hidden as part of a plan to confuse and wear down the Imperial forces.
• After more than five thousand legions gathered and the fleet relaxed following a day without attacks, alarms sounded as another colorless ray pierced the formation.

Lin Fan’s attacks slowed the Dasaross Empire’s advance through Meridian Valley and left its soldiers under severe mental strain. When Sherris’s forces halted to rest, Lin Yu opened a channel into Meridian Valley 155, and Sherris eventually sent a sub-fleet on a suicide mission to investigate.

• Lin Fan’s final Chaos Ray Carrier destroyed more than 132 Dasaross Empire legions as their fleets gathered at the channel entrance.
• Over twenty years, Lin Fan’s ambushes cost the Dasaross Empire more than three thousand legions and slowed its advance through the Black Hole Cavity Realms.
• Sherris ordered his exhausted fleets to disperse into nearby universes and rest for a year.
• Lin Yu learned the Dasaross fleets had stopped, waited two months for them to spread out, and opened a channel to Meridian Valley 155.
• After a year with no attack through the channel, Sherris ordered a sub-fleet to cross over and gather intelligence, knowing it might be annihilated.

Sherris ordered the Dasaross Empire fleet to withdraw after the Heretics closed an unusual Cross-border Channel, while Lin Fan prepared to exploit the retreat. Lin Fan planned to wear down the enemy for another fifty years before annihilating its expeditionary force at Meridian Valley 178.

• Sherris learned that the Cross-border Channel contained streams of seven-colored light, then ordered his fleet to withdraw when the channel disappeared.
• Lin Fan told the Alliance Fleet that the Dasaross Empire had begun retreating earlier than expected.
• Lin Fan ordered fleets to deploy Chaos Ray Carriers throughout the enemy's retreat route, with three to five ships in every Black Hole Cavity Realm.
• Lin Fan announced that the Alliance main fleet would meet the Dasaross Empire's expeditionary force at Meridian Valley 178 and destroy it after fifty years of psychological pressure.
• The fleet commanders accepted Lin Fan's orders and prepared to act immediately.

The Alliance ambushed and destroyed Sherris’s 23,000-legion Dasaross expeditionary force at Meridian Valley 178, bringing the Empire’s losses to more than 30,000 legions. Emperor Bater refused to send a second force immediately and ordered preparations for a joint invasion with the Crimson Church and Weiwei Empire within a thousand years.

• Lin Fan waited until the Dasaross fleet entered the Cross-border Channel before the Alliance opened the passage to Meridian Valley 178.
• Sherris’s fleet emerged from the passage into an Alliance ambush, and he ordered his forces to counterattack despite reports that the Heretics’ warships were superior.
• The Alliance overwhelmed the Imperial fleet with its firepower and Chaos Ray Carriers, destroying all 23,000 legions over five days while losing fewer than 200.
• Lin Fan learned that the Alliance’s cumulative attacks had cost the Dasaross Empire more than 30,000 legions, while the Federation Guard Fleet had not joined the battle.
• Tribello reported Sherris’s disappearance to Bater, who rejected a second expedition and ordered recruitment for a 100,000-legion force to join the Crimson Church and Weiwei Empire’s invasion.

At a Federation leadership meeting, Luo Li explained the progress and expected results of universal Black Hole Lifeform transformation, and Lin Fan outlined military expansion plans. The Federation planned to integrate the transformation into education and build up its fleets and elite forces over the coming centuries.

• Luo Li explained that the transformation process would lead subjects from Dark Energy Users to Black Hole Lifeforms, with timelines varying for later advancement.
• Lin Zhen set the first Life Source adjustment at age twenty and directed Ed to integrate the enhancement project into the education system.
• Lin Fan said the Federal Guard Fleet would not expand soon because Leviathan-class warships required high-tier Black Hole Lifeforms.
• Lin Fan planned to refit the Federal Fleet, expand it beyond ten thousand legions, and establish an Alliance Fleet of fifty thousand legions within a thousand years.
• Lin Fan proposed raising the Civilization Guardian Legion's entry threshold to the Third Tier and making it the Federation's most elite fighting force.

Five hundred years of transformation made the Federation a powerful Black Hole civilization, and Lin Fan expanded its fleet into the Superpower Fleet. In Federation Year 3915, the Crimson Church and Weiwei Empire urged Bater to use the Black Hole Gate to reach their target faster, despite its deadly cost in Black Hole Life Source.

• The Federation limited second adjustments to Peak Dark Energy Manipulators who had failed to advance after three hundred years, while its Black Hole Lifeforms grew dramatically in strength and number.
• Lin Fan renamed his expanded personal guard corps the Superpower Fleet and planned to grow it to five thousand corps over five hundred years.
• The Crimson Church and Weiwei Empire fleets joined the Dasaross Empire, bringing their combined force to three hundred and fifty thousand corps.
• Kachinsky proposed that Bater activate the Black Hole Gate to avoid the Ziwugu Route and its long delay.
• Bater recognized that the gate required Black Hole Life Source from Third Tier Black Hole Lifeforms, whose lives could not recover after it was extracted.
• Bater asked whether they intended to connect to the Black Hole Gate in the Noreya Empire.

The Purgers opened the Black Hole Gate and sent an allied fleet from the Dasaross Empire into the former Noreya Empire, expecting to surprise the Alliance while its main force was away. When a vast enemy fleet appeared near the Kousha Realm, Lin Fan realized the Purgers had a way to cross distant Black Hole Cavity Realms and called an emergency meeting.

• Bater agreed to activate the Black Hole Gate, with the Dasaross Empire, the Crimson Church, and the Weiwei Empire contributing 30,000 Third Tier Black Hole Lifeforms.
• The allied fleets passed through the gate and emerged in the Reno Realm, the former site of the Noreya Empire's imperial capital.
• Kachinsky, Lan Vitell, and Abeto concluded that the Alliance's main force was stationed along the Meridian Valley Route and believed they could invade its homeland before it returned.
• In Federation Year 3978, Liang Xue reported to Lin Fan that more than 300,000 enemy legions, including Dasaross fleets, were approaching the Kousha Realm.
• Lin Fan inferred that the Purgers possessed technology for crossing distant or disconnected Black Hole Cavity Realms and ordered an emergency meeting with the military commanders of all core civilizations.

Lin Fan proposed avoiding a costly defensive battle against the 350,000-legion force approaching from the Noreya Empire. He planned to trap that force in a looping chain of Black Hole Channels while the Federation’s main fleet blitzed the Dasaross Empire and destroyed its homeland.

• Alliance leaders questioned the report that the enemy force had come from the direction of the Noreya Empire, but Lin Fan confirmed the intelligence and ordered them to focus on defeating the invaders.
• Lin Fan rejected defending the Kadi Realm and announced that 50,000 legions would attack the Dasaross Empire’s homeland.
• Montero objected that the journey and campaign would take decades, but Lin Fan explained that the Federation would use cross-border channels to delay the Noreya-front force.
• Lin Fan said the Federation would repeatedly send the enemy fleets thirty Black Hole Cavity Realms away whenever they advanced through the Kousha Realm.
• Montero understood that the main fleet could destroy the Dasaross Empire while the 350,000 enemy legions remained trapped and eventually ran out of supplies.

The United Fleet of the three civilizations was repeatedly sent far from the Kousha Realm by the Federation's Cross-border Channel, while the Alliance's main force advanced toward the Dasaross Empire. Emperor Bater learned that a Heretic-style channel had opened in Tulu Realm and realized the Alliance's main force had reached the Empire.

• Kachinsky, Abeto, and Lan Vitell concluded that the United Fleet had been diverted into a Heretic Cross-border Channel and prepared bombs and independent gun emplacements to destroy its Cross-border Device.
• Three months later, the United Fleet discovered it had been sent thirty Black Hole Cavity Realms away, then prepared to make the journey back to Kousha Realm.
• In Federation Year 3979, the United Fleet advanced toward Kousha Realm while the Alliance's main force of fifty thousand legions came within eight hundred Black Hole Cavity Realms of the Dasaross Empire.
• In Federation Year 3986, a Cross-border Channel opened in Tulu Realm, and Emperor Bater ordered warships to investigate it.
• After learning that the channel had the Heretics' seven-colored streams of light, Bater realized the Alliance's main force had reached the Empire.

Bater realized the Dasaross Empire could not match the Heretics’ mobility and ordered Abel to invade their homeland within fifty years. Abel’s allies refused to help open a Black Hole Gate, while the Federation continued isolating and conquering imperial realms; the joint fleet returned to Kousha Realm and prepared to detonate its bombs.

• Bater concluded that the Empire had to attack the Heretics’ homeland and told Tribello to warn Abel that the Empire would fall if the invasion took longer than fifty years.
• Abel considered retreating through a Black Hole Gate, but Kachinsky and Lan Vitell refused to contribute the experts needed to open one, so Abel prepared to follow Bater’s orders.
• By Federation Year 3995, the Alliance had isolated the imperial capital and spread out to conquer other Black Hole Cavity Realms, while the Empire’s trapped fleet dared not emerge.
• The joint forces of the three civilizations returned to Kousha Realm, where Abeto was told that the first bombs had locked on and the incoming cargo was nearly there.