Chapter Summaries

Luo Yao exposed the altered vestibular test and secured a chance to train as a pilot, while also helping develop holographic flight instruction. He traveled with Commander Luo’s team to the Zhushi Airshow, where they expected Baidi to be displayed, but their exhibition hall was empty.

• Luo Yao calculated that the test system’s rotation speed had doubled and confronted Commander Luo, Old Zhou, and Zheng Yang about tampering with the test.
• After Luo Yao threatened to build and fly his own aircraft, Old Zhou and Zheng Yang agreed to reconsider his pilot training; three days later, Li Bin began instructing him.
• Luo Yao used Holographic Projection Technology to demonstrate aircraft instruction, and the Education Committee asked Little Moss to help develop a holographic educational model.
• As the Zhushi Airshow approached, Commander Luo chose unmanned mode for Baidi’s first appearance and brought Luo Yao and the team to Zhushi.
• Luo Yao discussed foreign electric-car price cuts and the graphite supply countermeasure with Zheng Yang before the team headed to the airshow venue.
• The team reached its exhibition hall and found that it contained no aircraft, leaving Baidi’s whereabouts unknown.

At the air show, Baidi and Xuan Nü stunned the audience with their advanced weapons and defenses, prompting questions about their connection to a supposed alien aircraft. Luo Yao challenged Rick’s pilots to fly Baidi, then revealed that Artificial Intelligence would control it, while Rick prepared to use the test for his own plan.

• Zheng Yang learned that Baidi and Xuan Nü would fly to the air show themselves, but their late arrival left the audience waiting after the scheduled performances.
• Baidi and Xuan Nü descended into the air show and demonstrated an Electromagnetic Cannon and an energy shield, prompting the crowd to connect them to NASA’s alien aircraft.
• Zheng Yang presented the Southern Sky Gate Plan promotional video and identified the aircraft as Baidi and Xuan Nü, while a booth presenter confirmed their spaceflight capability and energy shields.
• After Rick demanded proof, Luo Yao said Baidi also had an ion cannon and invited Rick’s pilots to fly it, claiming he wanted to demonstrate it for their safety.
• Luo Yao told Commander Luo and Zheng Yang that Artificial Intelligence would fly Baidi, while Rick instructed his pilot to memorize the aircraft’s interior and treated him as a disposable pawn.

Luo Yao let Rodney pilot Baidi, and Xihe helped him fly the aircraft into space before secretly diverting it to the South China Sea. There, Baidi’s appearance disrupted a group of Philippines dredgers cutting floating sea barriers, while the crowd suspected Rodney had caused the chaos and Rick realized his actions were being watched.

• Rick told Rodney to sabotage Baidi or smear the Hua Nation if sabotage failed, and Rodney boarded the aircraft.
• Luo Yao confirmed Rodney had placed first at Air Force University and said Xihe could help him operate Baidi.
• Xihe translated Baidi’s controls for Rodney, then Baidi took off vertically and climbed into space as spectators watched live footage.
• Luo Yao ordered Xihe to bring Baidi back to Earth, and Rodney began examining its systems as it descended.
• Luo Yao approved Xihe’s original plan, and Xihe diverted Baidi to the South China Sea, where Rodney found himself unable to control it.
• Baidi passed over Philippines dredgers cutting floating sea barriers, and a blast sent huge waves tossing their vessels while the crowd blamed Rodney and Rick recognized that thousands were watching.

Luo Yao and the Hua Nation officials let Rodel take the blame for Xihe firing the White Emperor’s particle cannon, while the incident embarrassed Rick and Lockheed. Rahman offered $30 billion to fund a lunar mission, and the chapter ended with Luo Yao revealing that the Medical pod had completed its fifth stage and was ready for hospital trials.

• Xihe fired the White Emperor’s particle cannon while Rodel was aboard, and Luo Yao explained that Rodel’s button pressing had done nothing because the AI controlled the aircraft.
• Rodel landed terrified, then faced accusations from the crowd, while Rick claimed the incident was a misunderstanding and took him away for investigation.
• Reports blamed Rodel for the incident, frightening the Philippines and leaving Rick’s new fighter unveiling overshadowed by the White Emperor.
• Rahman failed to buy the White Emperor and Xuan Nü, then offered $30 billion for Hua Nation to take his lunar rover to the Moon; Zheng Yang agreed to consult the lunar exploration team.
• Will interrogated Rodel, who praised the White Emperor and said the Ugly Nation could not match it; Will then pressured Rick to develop a similar fighter, and Lockheed’s orders and stock price fell.
• Luo Yao told Zheng Yang that the Medical pod had completed its fifth stage and that hospitals were being sought for trials.

Luo Yao flew the White Emperor to the aerospace center, where he was recruited to lead the nuclear fusion project. The team wanted nuclear fusion to power a spaceplane carrying a lunar rover to the Moon, leaving Luo Yao questioning how they planned to bring the crew back.

• Luo Yao took off in the White Emperor without notifying the control tower first and reached Mach 7 on his way to the aerospace center.
• Luo Yao made a vertical landing at the aerospace center, then discovered he had left his boarding ladder behind and asked for another one.
• At a Pentagon meeting, officials discussed cooperating with Mark's Space Exploration Company and planned to keep Mark's Starship project under government control.
• Mark rejected a subordinate's suggestion to invest in Hua Nation and learned that Neuralink's human trials were expected to begin the following week.
• At the aerospace center meeting, officials appointed Luo Yao chief engineer of the nuclear fusion project, hoping it would power a spaceplane's crewed lunar mission.
• Luo Yao pointed out that the White Emperor would run out of power before reaching the Moon, then questioned the plan to send a crew without a clear way to bring them back.

Luo Yao agreed to lead the Nuclear fusion project on the condition that his company receive half the operational and mining rights to a lunar helium-3 mine. After developing an experimental proposal and handing off the AI Medical Pods rollout, he learned that his advances had helped spur the European Alliance to plan a space station.

• Luo Yao agreed to lead the Nuclear fusion project if his company could secure fifty percent of the lunar helium-3 mine's operational and mining rights.
• Luo Yao flew Baidi to the Southwest Institute of Physics, heard Dean Fang describe the project's plasma confinement problems, and proposed using the Navier-Stokes equations to guide an experiment.
• Luo Yao used Little Moss to calculate possible solutions, then sent Dean Fang blueprints for an experiment firing helium-3 into a vacuum chamber; Dean Fang began building the prototype and dismantled an old Tokamak Device for parts.
• Luo Yao assigned Dan Xing to coordinate the AI Medical Pods rollout, including installations in willing and remote hospitals and on the space station.
• Dan Xing told Luo Yao that the European Alliance might launch a space station partly because his aerospace advances had created a sense of urgency, and Luo Yao rejected the blame.

The European Alliance struggled to address the technical challenges of its planned space station, while AI Medical Pods rapidly gained popularity and provoked resistance from hospital doctors. After hospitals shut off the pods, Dan Xing asked Little Moss how to introduce them without upsetting doctors, and Little Moss proposed building a separate AI hospital.

• Barro led the European Alliance conference, where representatives failed to resolve key space station testing and rescue problems before agreeing to develop the station with the Ugly Nation.
• Dan Xing arranged trial deployments of AI Medical Pods at major hospitals, where patients quickly embraced their efficient treatment.
• Doctor Cheng and Doctor Liang broke up a fight between Doctor Duan and another doctor, who argued over whether AI Medical Pods were threatening doctors' work and income.
• Doctor Cheng rallied doctors to resist the pods, and hospitals cut their power while management ignored the disruption.
• Dan Xing's team investigated the lack of treatment data and asked Little Moss for a solution; Little Moss suggested keeping AI Medical Pods out of existing hospitals and creating a hospital of their own.

Luo Yao’s fusion experiment stalled until he arranged for Xuan Nü drones to deliver scarce materials, then Zheng Yang summoned him to prepare an Academician nomination. Zheng Yang and Dan Xing learned that academic factions and institutional loyalties could block Luo Yao’s election, and left to seek another way to support him.

• Dan Xing and Little Moss developed a plan to renovate poorly managed hospitals into AI smart hospitals, and Little Moss produced a detailed renovation plan.
• Luo Yao joined researchers at the Physics Research Institute to test a deuterium-helium-3 fusion prototype, but repeated experiments failed and the team ran low on supplies.
• Luo Yao arranged an urgent delivery of liquid helium and target materials by Xuan Nü drones, allowing the experiment to continue.
• Zheng Yang called Luo Yao back to the capital and told him to complete materials for Academy of Sciences and Academy of Engineering nominations.
• Zheng Yang explained to Dan Xing that academic factions and university allegiances could undermine Luo Yao’s chances, then asked Dan Xing to accompany him to seek support from the College of Engineering.
• Director Kong warned Zheng Yang and Dan Xing that Luo Yao’s youth and dual nominations could provoke opposition, so Zheng Yang set out for a small courtyard with his apparent trump card.

Xiao Yang tried to secure support for Luo Yao’s academician nomination, while Luo Yao funded and led a successful nuclear-fusion experiment. As the election factions resisted his candidacy, a proposal arrived in March that threatened to overturn their confidence.

• Xiao Yang visited Academician Wan, who had nominated Luo Yao, but learned that Academician Chen opposed Luo Yao after hearing a relative’s account of a dispute involving Luo Zhu.
• Zheng Yang and Dan Xing were told that the senior leader would properly handle the matter concerning Vermilion Bird, though they did not know what that meant.
• Luo Yao paid twenty million to upgrade the Tokamak Device’s magnetic confinement, and researchers later modified the apparatus after the upgrade affected the helium atom emitter.
• The Refined Man arranged for a proposal to be presented at the congress, ordered continued deployment of Baidi and Xuan Nü, and directed a cooperation request from Dog Big Household and other countries to Luo Yao.
• Luo Yao helped the researchers successfully launch helium-3 atoms into plasma and collect valuable data for nuclear-fusion magnetic-confinement research.
• A week later, a proposal arrived in March that shattered the academician election factions’ confidence.

Luo Yao was nominated for Hua Nation’s highest national honorary title, People’s Scientist, as authorities pressured the Academy of Sciences and College of Engineering to support his academician selection. At his birthday party, he revealed that his plasma experiment had observed the end-flow phenomenon, while researchers at JET considered asking his team for the data.

• After returning from Feizhou, Wang Ye heard that Luo Yao might become an academician and worried about whether he would be selected.
• Director Liang told the academicians that Luo Yao was the sole nominee for People’s Scientist, prompting him to demand they reserve a vote for Luo Yao.
• Director Kong likewise instructed the College of Engineering academicians to support Luo Yao’s selection.
• At Luo Yao’s birthday party, Zheng Yang delivered the People’s Scientist nomination, and Edra explained that Luo Yao’s experiment had observed plasma’s end-flow phenomenon.
• Wang Ye and Sergei toasted Luo Yao, while Zheng Yang and Dan Xing recognized the nomination as a way to thwart the Academic Factions’ effort to block his academician status.
• After news outlets publicized Luo Yao’s nomination, Robert asked Director Mary whether JET should request his team’s experimental data.

After strange writing appeared in Luo Yao’s dorm, he traced the unexplained movement of dirt to a meteorite and had its sellers brought in for questioning. Meanwhile, he considered a foreign laboratory’s collaboration request and discussed preparing AI Medical Pods for a space station, where a new idea occurred to him.

• After Luo Yao drank himself to sleep at his birthday celebration, Zheng Yang found strange symbols arranged from soil in his dorm and asked Ye Shiqi to identify them.
• Ye Shiqi and Little Moss could not match the symbols to any known script, and Little Moss revealed that the photos came from Luo Yao’s monitored dorm room.
• Luo Yao linked the strange events in his room to a meteorite and showed Zheng Yang surveillance footage of dirt moving by itself.
• Zheng Yang summoned Edra, Wang Ye, and the others to the capital to question them about the meteorite, and they provided information about its seller.
• Luo Yao rejected a collaboration request from the JET Nuclear Fusion Laboratory and reviewed Dan Xing’s report on AI Medical Pods.
• Dan Xing urged Luo Yao to prepare AI Medical Pods for the planned space station, and Luo Yao suddenly came up with an idea.

Luo Yao proposed controlling a lunar-orbit space station with Little Moss, while officials in the Ugly Nation planned competing Moon and Mars missions. After an investigation found the strange meteorite appeared ordinary in initial tests, Luo Yao argued at an aerospace meeting that Hua Nation should build a lunar-orbit station as the first step toward a lunar base.

• Mary wondered why Luo Yao had not replied about the nuclear fusion data, while Robert told Oak that Hua Nation had made no progress.
• At a Pentagon funding meeting, officials approved simultaneous Moon and Mars plans after debating Hua Nation’s aerospace plane and electric propulsion.
• Luo Yao suggested that Little Moss remotely control a space station from lunar orbit, and Dan Xing invited him to raise the proposal at the aerospace center meeting.
• Zheng Yang told Luo Yao that investigators had found the meteorite’s seller, who claimed it had displayed strange behavior; researchers found no unusual features in the first round of tests.
• At the aerospace center, Luo Yao said Hua Nation would reach the Moon and Mars before the Ugly Nation and proposed a lunar-orbit space station as the next step toward building a base.

Luo Yao won support for a lunar space station, secured Edra and the others’ release to prepare AI Medical Pods for space, and assigned them to train Little Moss. Meanwhile, John’s ministers offered nuclear fusion technology in exchange for cooperation, and Luo Yao agreed despite Dan Xing’s suspicions.

• Luo Yao argued that Hua Nation should build a lunar space station, citing limited lunar orbital resources and the Moon’s helium-3, and Feng Xuan backed his proposal.
• Two days later, Hua Nation finalized its aerospace strategy and made a lunar space station a major project for the next decade.
• Luo Yao persuaded Zheng Yang to release Edra and the others, then tasked them with sending AI Medical Pods to the space station and training Little Moss for future lunar work.
• John’s ministers decided to use nuclear fusion technology as a bargaining chip to obtain AI Medical Pods and aerospace cooperation from Hua Nation.
• The health and science ministers offered Dan Xing nuclear fusion technology in exchange for cooperation, and Luo Yao agreed to the proposal after Dan Xing warned that it was a trap.

Luo Yao rejected the ITER Project members’ demands for fusion and NS equation data, then returned to the Southwest Institute of Physics to study experimental results. A month later, Dean Fang revealed that the team’s fifth fusion reaction had lasted sixty-two minutes, making Dan Xing realize Luo Yao’s earlier claim of no progress now sounded like a lie.

• Luo Yao and Dan Xing refused Noah and the ministers’ demands to disclose technology, and Luo Yao learned that their plasma reaction had lasted seven seconds.
• Luo Yao went to the Southwest Institute of Physics and reviewed the team’s experimental data with Dean Fang.
• Noah decided to warn Hua Nation, and Lawrence began seeking supply chains in Mexico to replace Hua Nation’s companies.
• Dan Xing argued for increased funding for Luo Yao’s fusion team, and Dean Fang told the meeting that its fifth reaction had lasted sixty-two minutes.

Luo Yao’s team achieved a sixty-two-minute nuclear fusion reaction with help from Little Moss, while Hua Nation secretly prepared a smaller superconducting Tokamak and First Wall research. As foreign pressure failed to unsettle Hua Nation’s companies, NASA’s space station suffered a life-support failure that left its astronauts facing a desperate wait for rescue.

• Old Zhou and the officials traveled to the Physics Research Institute, where Luo Yao explained that First Wall corrosion had stopped the reaction after sixty-two minutes.
• Luo Yao ran another experiment with one percent helium-3, and the reaction again lasted sixty-two minutes before researchers halted it to prevent corrosion.
• Dean Fang explained that Little Moss had learned to predict plasma tearing instability, and Old Zhou ordered the results kept secret while promising the research team full support.
• Old Zhou learned Luo Yao planned a superconducting spherical Tokamak and approved a ten-billion-Hua-currency budget for First Wall research.
• Ugly Nation entrepreneurs redirected orders through Mo Country and expected Hua Nation companies to panic, but Hua Nation’s businesses remained calm, leaving Lawrence uncertain about their intentions.
• NASA discovered that the space station’s backup life-support system had failed, and astronaut Tim learned that a rescue launch would take at least half a month.

A life-support failure stranded Tim and the other astronauts aboard the International Space Station, prompting John Country to seek help from the Hua Nation's White Emperor fighter. Luo Yao agreed to arrange a rescue only if John Country returned the Hua Nation cultural relics held by the John Museum, leaving David to decide whether to accept as the astronauts waited in danger.

• The life-support system's remote restart failed, and Tim and the other astronauts learned NASA's rescue could take fifteen days while the Big Bear's spacecraft would take at least a month.
• Valentin urged Tim to seek rescue using the Hua Nation's White Emperor fighter, and Tim sent a distress message to the John Space Administration after NASA resisted the request.
• The John Space Administration contacted the Hua Nation, whose Space Center director asked Old Zhou to arrange Pioneer Technology's assistance.
• Luo Yao told Old Zhou he would send the White Emperor only if John Country returned the cultural relics in the John Museum, and Old Zhou let Pioneer Technology make the demand publicly.
• Pioneer Technology announced its rescue offer and compensation condition, drawing public support while Bill urged David not to accept and David waited to see whether the astronauts could hold out.

John agreed to return twelve thousand cultural relics, including the Twelve Zodiac Animal Heads, in exchange for rescuing its trapped astronauts and an opportunity for cooperation. A Hua Nation delegation arrived at the John Museum to collect the relics, while Luo Yao held Baidi back until the handover was secure and then remotely launched it.

• John’s ministers proposed trading cultural relics for an astronaut rescue and AI Medical Pods, while Luo Yao demanded half of the relics John had taken and framed it as a test for future cooperation.
• After three days of negotiations, John accepted Luo Yao’s demand to return twelve thousand cultural relics in exchange for the rescue and a chance to cooperate.
• Old Zhou arranged for the air force and museum experts to retrieve the relics, while Luo Yao said Baidi would join the rescue after the Hua Nation team arrived in John.
• Shao Wen prepared museum experts for the recovery, and Professor Fang grew emotional at the prospect of seeing relics he had never encountered.
• Wang Ye led archaeologists and Pioneer Technology representatives to the John Museum with fifty Baidi and fifty Xuan Nü, but told John’s officials that Luo Yao would decide when Baidi took off.
• As Wang Ye’s delegation entered the museum, Luo Yao remotely controlled Baidi as it took off.

Luo Yao used Baidi to deliver medical pods and hot meals to Hua Nation's space station, then rescued two Johnese astronauts from the International Space Station while refusing Valentin's request to take Big Bear astronauts without an agreement. Afterward, Ivanov tried to secure a rescue partnership by offering Big Bear resources and technology, but Luo Yao rejected every offer, including nuclear-powered vessel technology.

• Luo Yao piloted Baidi to Hua Nation's space station, delivered AI Medical Pods and supplies, and delighted its six astronauts with hot food.
• Baidi reached the International Space Station, where Luo Yao refused to take Valentin and the Big Bear astronauts without a finalized agreement, but allowed Tim and another Johnese astronaut aboard.
• The pilot accelerated Baidi to Mach 10, and the two Johnese astronauts endured the trip before landing at the Johnese Space Launch Center and vomiting.
• Alexander and Ivanov discussed how to secure the rescue of the remaining Big Bear astronauts, fearing Luo Yao would demand their nuclear-powered vessel technology.
• Ivanov offered discounted oil and natural gas, spacecraft engines, and finally nuclear-powered vessel technology in exchange for a rescue partnership and future cooperation on lunar development, but Luo Yao rejected every offer.

Luo Yao secured Big Bear’s agreement to stop cooperating with the Ugly Nation on space stations in exchange for rescuing its astronauts and helping it reach the moon. Meanwhile, Dean Fang confronted ITER’s demand for plasma turbulence data and appeared unfazed when Noah threatened to vote Hua Nation out of the project.

• Luo Yao offered to rescue Big Bear’s astronauts and take Big Bear to the moon if it ended space-station cooperation with the Ugly Nation.
• Ivanov persuaded Valoja and Big Bear’s leaders to accept Luo Yao’s terms, and Luo Yao dispatched two Baidi aircraft to retrieve the astronauts.
• Bill grew suspicious of a deal between Pioneer Technology and Big Bear, while Noah traveled to John to coordinate pressure on Hua Nation over its fusion data.
• Dan Xing instructed Dean Fang to attend ITER’s meeting online and conceal Hua Nation’s nuclear-fusion breakthrough by acting naturally.
• Noah demanded the plasma turbulence experimental data and threatened to seek Hua Nation’s removal from ITER, but Dean Fang argued back and showed no apparent alarm.

Dean Fang used Noah’s attempt to expel Hua Nation from the ITER Project as an opportunity to withdraw, while Luo Yao received the People’s Scientist honor and became an Academician of the Two Academies. The chapter ends with Wang Ye finding an unexpected treasure among the John Museum’s paper artifacts.

• Noah proposed expelling Hua Nation from the ITER Project, but Dean Fang announced Hua Nation’s withdrawal instead, and Dan Xing arranged a public notice.
• Old Zhou declined to issue a statement about the controversy and ordered Dan Xing to make Luo Yao’s commendation ceremony grander.
• Luo Yao slept through much of the ceremony, received the People’s Scientist honor, and was announced as an Academician of the Two Academies.
• Old Zhou asked Luo Yao to help authenticate artifacts at the John Museum, and Luo Yao sent Little Moss on miniature Quantum Computers to assist Wang Ye and the experts.
• The John Museum director restricted Hua Nation’s choices to porcelain and paper artifacts, and Wang Ye found a valuable book while examining them.