Chapter Summaries

Lin Fan discovered that beings from several universes had appeared in his universe and realized an unknown force might threaten him. When the Star Ancient Empire’s fleet surrounded his universe, its scholars began investigating the unusual crystal barrier and urgently expanded their computing capacity.

• Lin Fan recalled how he had grown from a blacksmith into the master of his universe and noticed that Zhu Di, Zhu Youjian, Liu Xie, and Ying Zheng had appeared there from other universes.
• Lin Fan sensed an almost undetectable force watching him and wondered whether an advanced civilization or a system had found his universe.
• Lin Fan emerged outside his universe and saw it surrounded by a vast fleet of super warships, which he feared belonged to a Level Eight Sequence civilization.
• Yang Yue and other Star Ancient Empire academicians studied the universe’s hexagonal crystal barrier and identified it as a major discovery.
• Li Muyao ordered half the Imperial Academy of Engineering’s servers connected to the research effort, with multiversal spacetime servers held in reserve.

Lin Fan attempted to communicate with the Star Ancient Empire fleet, but Li Muyao’s researchers identified him as an avatar linked to the universe and chose to test the universe’s durability. The fleet began preparing a massive planet-destroying cannon barrage while the Empire planned to imprison the universe with a Spacetime Cage.

• Long Xiao asked Li Muyao whether the fleet should enter attack formation, and she ordered it to do so without firing unless necessary.
• Lin Fan appeared in the void chaos and tried to intimidate the fleet, but its defenses neutralized his power and a mysterious instrument locked onto him.
• Lin Fan greeted the fleet and sent messages in many languages, but received no response.
• Yang Yue and Lin Ling explained that Lin Fan was an avatar linked to the universe and that capturing it would yield no useful information.
• Li Muyao rejected destroying Lin Fan’s avatar and ordered the researchers to prepare a Spacetime Cage while the fleet tested the universe’s durability.
• Long Xiao ordered 300,000 warships to fire planet-destroying cannons at the universe for five minutes.

Lin Fan’s universe faced an invasion by a far more advanced civilization, prompting its hidden Seventh-level Sequence Civilization and Lin Family to prepare for war. Lin Fan sent fleets outside the universe, where the Flame Dragon United Nations and Star Ancient Empire opened fire on the invaders.

• Lin Fan withdrew his quantum-particle body as alarms alerted the five-star civilization to an invasion by a civilization stronger than its own.
• The Grand Elder ordered the civilization into a state of war after the Elders concluded they had to fight to survive, and the Third Elder confirmed the Lin Family was ready for battle.
• Lin Fan used the Crystal of the Universe to watch the enemy bombard the universe barrier, then opened spatial passages for fleets to enter the voidlike chaos outside.
• Long Xiao learned that more than twenty million enemy warships and several eighth-tier lifeforms had appeared, and he dismissed the need for tactical strikes.
• Yi Yucheng ordered tens of millions of Flame Dragon United Nations warships to fire alongside the Star Ancient Empire fleet, then directed reinforcements to prepare a coordinated surprise attack.

Yi Yucheng’s forces deployed several tactics against the Star Ancient Empire’s fleet, but their attacks proved ineffective and the universe itself protected them from destruction. Li Muyao and the Engineering Academy then prepared to isolate the Active Universe and investigate its structure and energy.

• Yi Yucheng ordered his forces to use stargates, phantom fleets, shield-supported guerrilla attacks, electromagnetic pulses, and spatial traps.
• Long Xiao and the First Fleet’s commander realized the Active Universe had blocked their attacks, then ordered a galactic-level strike and stellar-level strikes against the opposing forces.
• Li Muyao explained that the universe had gathered its strength to stop the attacks and that even a Ninth-tier Lifeform could not withstand them directly.
• Lin Ling reported that the researchers had connected multiverse and parallel-universe servers and mobilized vast computing resources.
• Li Muyao ordered the Spacetime Research Institute to isolate the Active Universe and the Energy Research Institute to gather surrounding energy and seal off the outer universe’s vacuum energy.
• The researchers began exploring the Active Universe’s structure, space, and spacetime through the pinhole method.

Lin Fan watched the Star Ancient Empire's fleet devastate the Flame Dragon United Nations' forces and judged the attackers to be a higher-level civilization. As the surviving leaders faced the losses, the Fifth Elder condemned them for hiding the truth from the troops, while the Grand Elder questioned whether surrender would save them.

• Lin Fan condemned the Flame Dragon United Nations for sending troops into battle without telling them they faced a higher-level civilization, then began making his own arrangements.
• The Star Ancient Empire's fleet unleashed stellar-class beams that destroyed the Flame Dragon United Nations' warships and rendered Yi Yucheng's tactics useless.
• Yi Yucheng realized that the enemy had been holding back, then died as his fleet was destroyed.
• The Fifth Elder accused the leaders of sacrificing soldiers by concealing the enemy's strength and demanded to know why they had weakened the military.
• The Grand Elder argued that the leaders had been unable to change the situation and asked whether the Flame Dragon United Nations could survive even if it did not resist.

After learning that the Active Universe was a fishing universe, Ying Zheng warned the other emperors and put Great Qin on alert against a possible invasion. He left the story considering whether to name his daughter Ying Yinman as heir apparent.

• Li Muyao asked whether the passages between the worlds were closed and whether the commoners taken by Great Qin had been dealt with, and Yang Yue said the passages were shut but the commoners had not yet been examined.
• Emperors in the Huaxia Emperors Chat Group reported being returned from the Active Universe, with King of Chenliu saying his soldiers were feverish and their equipment was destroyed.
• Ying Zheng learned from the system that the Active Universe was a fishing universe that assessed other civilizations before annexing weaker ones.
• Ying Zheng warned the emperors that the universe had an intermediate civilization and ordered Great Qin to ready its warships, isolate the returned commoners, and monitor them.
• Ying Zheng ordered Ying Yinman to detain the Black Ice Bureau members who had entered the universe and place the bureau on full combat readiness.
• After Ying Yinman carried out his orders, Ying Zheng considered making her heir apparent instead of Gao'er.

Princess Mu Ying Yang Yue told Lin Fan that the Great Qin Empire’s system had exposed his schemes, and the Spacetime Cage had trapped and weakened him for use as a research subject. Outside the universe, Li Muyao stopped the fleet’s bombardment now that the cage had secured it.

• A Spacetime Cage formed around the Active Universe, suppressing Lin Fan’s power and preventing him from resisting.
• Princess Mu Ying Yang Yue identified herself and explained that Lin Fan had been caught by the Engineering Academy’s calculations.
• Lin Fan learned that his schemes against the Great Qin Empire had been reported through the system to the Heavenly Hall, drawing the civilization’s leaders’ attention.
• Princess Mu Ying Yang Yue said Lin Fan had become a research specimen and left for the high-dimensional battlefield.
• Li Muyao told Long Xiao’s fleet to stop bombarding the Active Universe because the Spacetime Cage had brought it under control.

Li Muyao and the Imperial Academy of Engineering trapped a universe in a Spacetime Cage and used Quantum to study its human-centered structure and unstable timelines. After asking Yang Yue how a conscious universe could accelerate time, Li Muyao connected the answer to the limits of Ninth-tier Lifeforms and questioned whether removing genetic locks across every timeline would free them from all spacetime constraints.

• The Imperial Academy of Engineering stopped its attack and guarded the Research Mother Ship while Yang Yue explained how the Spacetime Cage imprisoned the universe.
• Li Muyao launched Quantum to gather data, and researchers reported that the universe’s life and structure followed a human-centered design.
• Li Muyao considered the universe’s unstable timeline system and went to the Spacetime Research Institute to ask Yang Yue how a universe could accelerate time.
• Yang Yue explained that a conscious universe could use its operating laws to speed up or slow down its progress, like a universe being debugged.
• Li Muyao asked whether a Ninth-tier Lifeform could escape the universe’s constraints by removing genetic locks across every timeline.

Li Muyao directed the Bio-gene Research Institute to investigate whether Ninth-tier Lifeforms could escape the universe’s genetic restraints. Suspecting Princess Mu Ying had already done so, she sent Su Tianlong to inspect her records and pressured Yang Yue to trace the princess’s history across spacetime.

• Li Muyao ordered researchers to simulate how Ninth-tier Lifeforms could survive independently of the universe and its spacetime.
• After the academicians discussed whether this meant breaking the universe’s genetic restrictions, Li Muyao asked Su Tianlong to activate a backdoor and check Princess Mu Ying’s indicators.
• Su Tianlong agreed to investigate whether Princess Mu Ying had escaped the universe’s DNA restraints.
• Li Muyao contacted Yang Yue and asked her to trace Princess Mu Ying’s deeds across major spacetimes back to Primordial Antiquity.
• Yang Yue refused, warning that Nightfall controlled spacetime, but Li Muyao urged her to help because the research could enable mass production of Ninth-tier Lifeforms.

Li Muyao persuaded Yang Yue to use a forbidden spacetime backdoor to investigate Princess Mu Ying, and the two traveled to the Empire’s pre-Epoch past. There, a little girl in the Stone Age seemed able to see Li Muyao, leaving her terrified.

• Li Muyao confronted Yang Yue about the backdoors in her spacetime research and urged her to help investigate Princess Mu Ying through a backdoor in the princess’s DNA framework.
• Yang Yue warned that they could be discovered and face severe consequences, but agreed to take the risk with Li Muyao.
• Yang Yue opened a miniature Dimensional Black Hole, and the two entered it to observe the past while avoiding monitored spacetime wormholes.
• As they traveled through time, Yang Yue and Li Muyao searched for traces of Princess Mu Ying and eventually reached the Empire’s pre-Epoch Stone Age.
• A little girl in animal hides looked directly toward Li Muyao across dimensions, frightening her, while the era’s Emperor and Princess Mu Ying’s birth mother did not notice the observers.

Li Muyao and Yang Yue escaped the Active Universe after Li Muyao realized young Princess Mu Ying could sense her watching. Back in the present time-space, Yang Yue ordered an investigation into the unauthorized travelers and confronted the Time-Space Administration Bureau, leaving Night Ten to face punishment.

• Li Muyao told Yang Yue that young Princess Mu Ying seemed able to see her across time-spaces, and the two fled through a miniature wormhole.
• Yang Yue ordered Nightfall to summon the Spacetime Fleet, arrest Su Tianlong, and bring the Time-Space Administration Bureau director to her.
• Yang Yue accused Night Ten of allowing unauthorized time travel and showed evidence from her childhood perspective of two strange figures watching her.
• Night Chief ruled that Night Ten should receive thirty lashes for the Bureau's failure, then added twenty more after seeing the evidence.

The First Fleet of the Star Ancient Empire’s Second United Fleet confronted the Spacetime Fleet, which had come to arrest people aboard a research ship. As Princess Mu Ying Yang Yue considered strange memories of the past, Night Eleven explained that they could indicate an illegal journey through time, and the fleets awaited further instructions.

• Long Xiao ordered the First Fleet to warn the Spacetime Fleet that it was escorting important researchers and to contact the Imperial Palace for authorization.
• The Spacetime Fleet demanded that the First Fleet power down its weapons and claimed it had come to arrest criminals aboard the research ship.
• Long Xiao refused to move aside without orders and put the First Fleet on first-level combat readiness, charging its main cannons.
• Princess Mu Ying Yang Yue asked Night Eleven whether time travel could cause strange memories, and he explained how altered timelines and paradoxes could arise.
• Night Chief asked whether Yang Yue’s memories proved someone had traveled back before the Epoch, and Night Eleven said they did.
• A report arrived from the fleet ahead.

Marshal Long Ya and the Emperor learned that Princess Mu Ying had sent the Spacetime Fleet to arrest researchers accused of violating spacetime law. Imperial authorization was granted for the fleet to proceed, leaving the First Fleet ordered to open a passage.

• Marshal Long Ya learned that Princess Mu Ying had ordered the Spacetime Fleet to arrest researchers aboard the Research Mother Ship.
• Bai Mu reported the standoff to Emperor Yang Yu, while Nan Kexin reported that Nightfall was also trying to arrest four-star academician Su Tianlong.
• Yang Yu told his secretaries to withdraw and asked Nan Kexin to tell Princess Mu Ying he was waiting for her answer.
• Bai Mu told Marshal Long Ya that the Spacetime Fleet had authority to act first and report later, with imperial authorization granted.
• Long Xiao received the order and directed the First Fleet to open a passage.

Princess Mu Ying Yang Yue confronted Li Muyao and Yang Yue after they returned from a time tunnel and ordered Nightfall to detain them for violating the Spacetime Administration Law. Li Muyao recognized that she and Yang Yue had met Princess Mu Ying in the Time Corridor and demanded to know why she had tampered with her DNA and traveled into the past.

• Princess Mu Ying Yang Yue boarded the Research Mother Ship with Night Chief and went to Li Muyao's lounge.
• Nightfall opened the lounge, but Yang Yue sensed that Li Muyao and Yang Yue had recently used spacetime power there.
• Night Chief reported that Su Tianlong had been taken to the Imperial Palace and that the emperor had ordered the chief culprit brought to the Imperial Study.
• Li Muyao and Yang Yue emerged from the void, and Night Eleven accused them of violating the Imperial Spacetime Administration Law.
• Li Muyao asked to speak privately with Princess Mu Ying, then revealed that she and Yang Yue had met her in the Time Corridor.
• Li Muyao demanded to know why Princess Mu Ying had secretly implanted a backdoor in her DNA and traveled through a time tunnel into the past.

Yang Yue explained to Li Muyao that Ninth-tier Lifeforms existed across spacetime and warned her not to investigate time recklessly. In the Imperial Study, Yang Yu reprimanded the three academicians and ordered them to suspend their work and remove the Imperial Academy of Engineering’s backdoors.

• Yang Yue told Li Muyao that a Ninth-tier Lifeform existed across spacetime and that the O'Reilly Empire's Guardian Will of spacetime had not truly died.
• Yang Yue warned Li Muyao that investigating time could endanger her and the Empire, then sent her and her companions to meet His Majesty.
• Yang Yu scolded Li Muyao, Yang Yue, and Su Tianlong for their unauthorized time travel and their involvement in leaving a backdoor in the Princess's DNA sequence.
• Yang Yu suspended Li Muyao and Yang Yue from their projects and ordered them to reflect at the old site of the Imperial Academy of Engineering.
• Yang Yu gave the Imperial Academy of Engineering three days to remove every backdoor from its major projects and said Star would audit them.

Yang Yu convened the Imperial Cabinet and military leaders to discuss establishing secondary capitals, including merging the Hanhai and Hanlin Realms. The Cabinet debated the proposal, with Yang Yue volunteering to oversee the two realms while the discussion over their suitability continued.

• Yang Yue told Yang Yu she could temporarily manage the Hanhai and Hanlin Realms and govern them fully if they became a secondary capital, and Yang Yu approved before ending the call.
• Yang Yu told the gathered Cabinet members and military leaders that the Empire was not preparing for war and proposed two secondary capitals: the former O'Reilly Empire capital and the merged Hanhai and Hanlin Realms.
• Prime Minister Long Ye argued that the proposed sites were unsuitable, while Minister of Finance Yang Lin'er supported merging the Hanhai and Hanlin Realms because of their population, resources, and strategic location.
• Yang Lin'er cited the realms' combined population and territory, and Long Ye said their development could support at least two Imperial T0 Class United Fleets.
• Minister of Public Security Bai Hong opposed concentrating people in the two realms and argued that undeveloped universes also needed population and attention.

Yang Yu ordered the Vast Sea and Vast Forest realms developed as the Empire’s companion capital, named Star, and scheduled the proposal for the grand court assembly. As the Empire’s top officials gathered to hear it, Yang Yu entered looking exhausted and barely able to stay awake.

• Yang Yu rebuked Bai Hong and declared that the Vast Sea and Vast Forest realms would become the Empire’s companion capital, with the capital to relocate there within one hundred thousand years.
• Yang Lin’er proposed naming the new capital Star and explained the name’s significance, and the ministers agreed.
• Yang Yu ordered Long Ye to present the proposal at the grand court assembly and directed the Sixth United Fleet to prepare to garrison the two realms.
• The Empire’s marshals, academicians, and cabinet officials gathered in the spatially expanded Treasure Hall for the grand court assembly.
• Bai Mu ordered everyone to stand as Yang Yu entered, appearing so exhausted that he seemed close to collapsing.

At the grand court assembly, Yang Yu reprimanded realm governors for declining conditions and withheld wages, then imposed stricter oversight and shorter terms for governors. He left Star River Realm’s governor three days to pay workers or lose his position.

• Yang Yu rebuked the Governor of Vast Sea Realm for the realm’s 1.5% decline and warned underperforming governors to improve or resign.
• Yang Yu challenged the Governor of Star River Realm over unpaid wages, and Star exposed the realm’s falsified reports and 37.98 million shu in withheld funds.
• Minister of Finance Yang Lin'er explained that Star River Realm had received 100 million shu in project funding over ten years.
• Yang Yu gave Star River Realm’s governor three days to settle all withheld wages or leave office.
• Yang Yu assigned Star to evaluate governors in Dark Domain, Beastman Domain, Snake-People Domain, and Longhorn Domain, and changed governor terms and reviews from ten years to five.

The Imperial Court Assembly reviewed the Empire’s wartime losses and agreed on plans to relocate citizens from the fourth and fifth dimensions to the Star World while preserving the Fifth-dimensional Battlefield. The assembly seemed ready to end until Prime Minister Long Ye announced another memorial.

• Nan Wentian reported that the Empire had lost over ten million warships and 300 billion soldiers, while the three vassal civilizations had suffered losses of around 70%.
• Yang Lin’er reported that Imperial Finance had compensated the vassal civilizations, funded replacement warships, and paid soldiers’ families; Yang Yu ordered the Imperial United Fleet restored to its full quota of about 100 million warships.
• Long Ye proposed abandoning the fourth and fifth dimensions and relocating their citizens to the Star World to simplify administration and develop low-dimensional worlds.
• Bai Wen supported leaving other dimensional planes but insisted the Empire keep the Fifth-dimensional Battlefield to hold back Outer Realm invaders.
• Yang Yu approved the Cabinet’s arrangements and ordered the realms’ populations kept balanced.
• Long Ye presented another memorial just as the assembly seemed about to end.

Long Ye proposed establishing a secondary capital to help govern the expanding Empire, and Yang Yu considered locating it in the Hanhai Realm. The ministers instead backed merging the Hanhai and Hanlin Realms into a Special Zone and building the Empire’s first super-imperial capital there.

• Long Ye proposed creating a secondary capital because the Imperial center could not effectively govern distant star domains.
• Yang Yu asked where the secondary capital should be, and Long Ye recommended the Hanhai Realm, citing its location, development, and proximity to the Imperial Academy of Engineering.
• Yang Lin'er opposed the Hanhai Realm as too small and proposed merging it with the Hanlin Realm, while the Star River Realm Governor quietly regretted the unpaid project bills that had drawn criticism.
• Yang Yue confirmed that the realms could be merged, and Li Muyao supported connecting them into a super-universe and super-imperial capital.
• The military offered troops and retiring soldiers for public security, and Yang Lin'er proposed making the Hanlin and Hanhai Realms a Special Zone with finances managed directly by the Cabinet.
• Several ministers seconded Yang Lin'er's proposal.