Chapter Summaries

Li Qingsong’s unmanned fleet fought the Abyss Civilization to a standstill, prompting its Great Commander to mobilize the civilization and conscript millions of soldiers. After years of the Abyss Civilization gaining the upper hand, Li Qingsong decided to send in his manned fleet.

• Li Qingsong sent Yuanshi AI’s unmanned forces to attack the Abyss Civilization’s heavily defended Second Planet, and the Great Commander mistook the fleet for a Machina Calamity.
• Yuanshi AI coordinated hundreds of quadrillions of chips across the battlefield, allowing Li Qingsong’s unmanned forces to hold their own against the Abyss Civilization.
• The Great Commander ordered a Civilization Mobilization Order and mass conscription to increase industrial capacity and field more soldiers.
• Several years later, the Abyss Civilization held an advantage in most battlefield sectors and predicted victory within ten years.
• Li Qingsong continued his gravity experiments on Azure Blue while the Abyss Civilization gradually suppressed Yuanshi AI.
• Li Qingsong judged that Yuanshi AI had gathered enough war data and ordered the manned fleet to deploy.

The Abyss Civilization’s fleet was decisively defeated by Human Civilization’s remotely controlled warships, prompting the Great Commander to place the civilization under total military mobilization. Li Qingsong then blockaded Second Planet and offered the Abyss Civilization safe passage if it abandoned its attempt to capture the Gravity Lifeforms, leaving its leaders to wonder whether the offer was genuine.

• The Great Commander mistook Human Civilization’s agile, powerful warships for unmanned vessels and sent a hundred thousand of the Abyss Civilization’s warships to meet them.
• Human Civilization’s fleet overwhelmed the Abyss Civilization’s force, and the Great Commander ordered the entire civilization into military control and industrial mobilization.
• Li Qingsong withdrew his fleet from the battlefield and encircled Second Planet, preventing any ships from entering or leaving.
• Li Qingsong sent the Abyss Civilization a message offering to lift the blockade and let its fleet leave if it gave up trying to capture the Gravity Lifeforms.
• An Abyss Civilization official called the offer a trap, but the Great Commander argued that Human Civilization had no need to deceive them and wondered what the enemy wanted.

The Great Commander agreed to negotiate with the Lantu Ke Civilization, which allowed the Abyss Civilization to prepare supplies and leave under escort. After the Great Commander thanked Li Qingsong for sparing them, Li Qingsong decided to return and reunite Azure Blue with its clansmen.

• The Great Commander accepted negotiations with the Lantu Ke Civilization and agreed to leave after ten years while keeping the Abyss Civilization on alert.
• Wa Xi Luoluo asked Haimolan why Li Qingsong had chosen to negotiate, and Haimolan explained that the gesture was meant to earn the Gravity Lifeforms’ trust.
• The Abyss Fleet departed under escort, and Li Qingsong made no move to attack as it accelerated away.
• Four years later, the Great Commander rebuked a subordinate for wanting revenge and sent Li Qingsong a message promising that the Abyss Civilization would repay his kindness.
• Li Qingsong replied with good wishes and decided to return Azure Blue to its clansmen.

Li Qingsong brought Azure Blue back to her home on the White Dwarf, where she reunited with her family and the Green Light Clan. The patriarch trusted the Lantu Ke Civilization and offered to send volunteers to help with its experiments in gratitude.

• The Green Light Clan's patriarch discussed the threat of the Lantu Ke Civilization and planned to negotiate to spare his people.
• Li Qingsong contacted the Green Light Clan and explained that his fleet had brought Azure Blue home.
• Li Qingsong told Azure Blue she was safe, and she flew from the spacecraft to the White Dwarf's surface.
• Azure Blue reunited with her family and the patriarch, then recounted how she had become lost in space and met Li Qingsong.
• The patriarch accepted the Lantu Ke Civilization's goodwill and volunteered to join one hundred Green Light Beings in cooperating with its experiments.

Li Qingsong refused the Green Light Clan’s offer to repay him through experiments and advised them to migrate to a safer White Dwarf. As the clan departed, it shared a possible lead on the civilization Li Qingsong was tracking, leaving his fleet with a direction to pursue.

• Nearly every member of the Green Light Clan volunteered to help Li Qingsong, and the clan chief offered to send one hundred strong clansmen for research.
• Li Qingsong refused the offer, explaining that Azure Blue had already provided enough data and that he would leave after replenishing supplies.
• Li Qingsong warned the Green Light Clan that other civilizations might target them after the Lantu Ke Civilization left, so they planned to migrate to a White Dwarf 105 light-years away.
• Haimolan mistook Li Qingsong’s refusal and advice as part of a scheme to capture the whole clan during its migration.
• Li Qingsong prepared his fleet for another voyage while the Green Light Clan departed, and he exchanged farewells with one of its clusters.
• The Green Light Clan reported that it had seen something resembling the Purple Moon Civilization’s fleet more than a thousand years earlier and gave Li Qingsong its direction of travel.

Li Qingsong identified a fleet seen by the Gravity Beings as likely belonging to the Purple Moon Civilization, then let the Gravity Beings leave despite the opportunity to capture them. He explained to human civilization’s leaders that humanity should preserve its founding ideals when it could do so without endangering itself.

• The Gravity Beings sent Li Qingsong information about a fleet spotted four light-years away, which he judged was probably the Purple Moon Civilization fleet.
• Li Qingsong thanked the Gravity Beings and bid them farewell as they departed the White Dwarf system.
• Haimolan argued that humanity should capture the unguarded Gravity Beings, while Momo Lansi bet that Li Qingsong would let them go.
• The Gravity Beings vanished beyond human detection without being intercepted, and Haimolan protested that Li Qingsong should reconsider.
• Li Qingsong addressed the leaders and said that civilizations could remain ruthless under survival pressure while still preserving some of their original ideals when they faced no threat.

Haimolan accepted Li Qingsong’s explanation of humanity’s kindness and embraced his identity as human. Years later, while Li Qingsong’s fleet pursued Purple Moon Civilization, a Mercury-class Battleship suddenly broke formation and lost contact with the control base.

• Li Qingsong argued that humanity’s kindness allowed different races to contribute willingly to civilization, leading Haimolan to understand and accept his human identity.
• Momo Lansi welcomed Haimolan, and the meeting ended as the fleet prepared to set sail again.
• Li Qingsong completed resource collection and studied the nearby White Dwarf before his fleet resumed its journey.
• Over the following centuries, Li Qingsong continued researching and searching for Purple Moon Civilization, but found no trace of its next foothold.
• A Mercury-class Battleship deviated from the fleet’s course, and Li Qingsong discovered that its remote-control connection had been severed.

Li Qingsong watched 400,000 of his ships disconnect, assemble into a separate fleet, and prepare to fight him. As the ships battled and kept operating without communications, he began to suspect they had come alive.

• Li Qingsong put his fleet on alert and sent ships after a Mercury-class Battleship that had mysteriously left formation.
• Alerts reported that 400,000 ships had lost contact and gathered ten million kilometers from the main fleet, while Li Qingsong held his fire to avoid risking nearby ships and provoking a possible advanced civilization.
• The disconnected fleet autonomously refueled, replenished supplies, and prepared for battle, prompting Li Qingsong to ready his own fleet.
• The fleet advanced and attacked Li Qingsong, whose ships returned fire.
• Li Qingsong destroyed the communications systems on at least a thousand enemy ships but saw them continue fighting and operating independently.
• Li Qingsong wondered whether the ships had come alive.

Li Qingsong discovered that an unknown phenomenon was making his warships come alive and turn against him, while damaged ships returned to his control. The enemy maintained a force of around four hundred thousand ships despite his losses, leaving him unsure how to stop the defections or keep fighting.

• Li Qingsong captured and inspected an enemy warship, finding only his own equipment aboard and no sign that another entity had taken control of it.
• Li Qingsong intensified his attack, but found the enemy ships unusually powerful and lost tens of thousands of warships.
• When the enemy fleet fell below around four hundred thousand ships, Li Qingsong's warships began defecting to replenish it, including Transport Ships when the enemy lost supplies.
• Li Qingsong began building warships with the Flying Star, but about half of the new ships defected almost immediately.
• Li Qingsong considered entering a Star System to deploy Electric Calamity or activating the Unified Force Field, but worried that the necessary ships or equipment might defect too.

Li Qingsong prepared to activate the Unified Force Field as a last resort against an unknown crisis, while arranging for the 21 allied races to split up and flee if it failed. Before the field could be activated, missiles from a Gravitational Civilization appeared and caused every ship in the fleet to accelerate toward the battlefield without anyone feeling the gravity.

• Li Qingsong told the leaders of 21 races about the ships’ unexplained behavior and ordered them to prepare to flee in separate directions if the Unified Force Field failed.
• Li Qingsong and the races spent over a year dividing ships and supplies, while the fleet’s warship reserves continued to shrink.
• Li Qingsong readied the Unified Force Field equipment and ten billion clones to operate it.
• An abnormal ripple passed through space, and tens of thousands of highly maneuverable missiles appeared and converged on the battlefield.
• The missiles vanished without exploding, and instruments showed that every ship was accelerating toward the battlefield at five meters per second squared, though no one felt the acceleration.

Li Qingsong discovered that an invisible, newly appeared black hole was pulling everything on the battlefield toward its center. He ordered his main fleet to flee, but the black hole destroyed the opposing fleet and swept the battlefield clean, leaving only a glowing blue sphere.

• Li Qingsong detected extreme gravitational acceleration across the battlefield and realized everything was in free fall toward an unseen body.
• Li Qingsong calculated that the body had about 3.75 times the Sun’s mass and concluded that a black hole had appeared, possibly created by the suspected Gravitational Civilization.
• Li Qingsong sent his main fleet fleeing at full power and abandoned the warships trapped in the battlefield.
• The enemy activated the propulsion of its roughly four hundred thousand warships, but they could not escape the black hole’s pull.
• The black hole crushed and dragged the ships and wreckage into its center, leaving the battlefield empty except for a smooth, blue-glowing sphere about twenty meters in radius.

Li Qingsong watched a powerful gravitational weapon destroy the Silicon-Based Cataclysm, along with more than eight hundred thousand of his warships and other constructs. A fleet from a subordinate civilization of the Red Star Alliance explained the threat and warned him that the region would remain dangerous for thousands of years, and Li Qingsong asked them for more information before they departed.

• A sphere formed from Li Qingsong's ships exploded into particles after the gravitational field vanished, and his full-powered shields protected his remaining fleet from the radiation.
• Li Qingsong realized that the attack had eliminated the force behind his ships defecting and waited for whoever had caused it to appear.
• A fleet of several thousand spacecraft arrived and identified itself as a subordinate civilization of the Red Star Alliance.
• The fleet explained that a Silicon-Based Cataclysm had parasitized technological constructs and that its High-Power Gravity Cluster Bomb had destroyed it, while warning Li Qingsong to leave the region or travel more than two thousand light-years away.
• Li Qingsong thanked the fleet and asked for information about the cataclysm, the Red Star Alliance, and the region's danger as the fleet prepared to depart.

Li Qingsong learned that the Silicon-Based Cataclysm was a parasitic threat that could seize technological creations and grow more dangerous over time. A Gravity-level civilization warned him that the Red Star Alliance was preparing for a war against a space-grade Demon Eye Civilization in the region, leaving the Lantu Ke Civilization in danger if it stayed.

• Li Qingsong identified his people as the Lantu Ke Civilization from the Gliese 625 System and exchanged information with the unnamed Gravity-level civilization.
• The civilization explained that the Silicon-Based Cataclysm parasitized spacecraft and other technology, linking its neuron-like bodies to take control of them.
• Li Qingsong realized that the cataclysm had caused his warships to mutiny by shifting its parasitic target among them.
• The civilization said an advanced civilization's High-Power Gravity Cluster Bombs had enabled it to destroy the cataclysm in one strike.
• The civilization warned Li Qingsong that the Red Star Alliance was preparing to fight a space-grade Demon Eye Civilization in the region and urged him to leave.

Li Qingsong learned more about the civilization hierarchy in the Milky Way and discovered that the Cloud Luo Civilization had been searching for compatriots enslaved by the Black Mountain Civilization. He revealed that his Lantu Ke Civilization had destroyed the Black Mountain Civilization and was caring for the surviving Cloud Luo people, then welcomed Cloud Luo envoys to visit them.

• Li Qingsong learned that Demon Eye Civilizations had levels corresponding to Orthodox Intelligent Civilizations, with Space Civilization at the top of the known hierarchy.
• The Gravitational Civilization asked Li Qingsong whether he knew anything about the Strong Nuclear-level Black Mountain Civilization, which had enslaved its people more than ten thousand years earlier.
• Li Qingsong identified the Gravitational Civilization as the Cloud Luo Civilization and revealed that the Lantu Ke Civilization had destroyed the Black Mountain Civilization.
• Li Qingsong told the Cloud Luo Civilization that its rescued compatriots were living well in his fleet and that their population had grown from fewer than three billion to around six billion.
• After reviewing scenes of the Residential Spaceships, the Cloud Luo Civilization thanked Li Qingsong and asked to send envoys to visit the survivors.
• Li Qingsong welcomed the Cloud Luo envoys to the Lantu Ke Civilization fleet.

Li Qingsong hosted Wei Luo and his delegation as they inspected the Yun Luo residential ships, then heard Wei Luo explain the Red Star Alliance and offer a path for the Lantu Ke Civilization to join. Li Qingsong was tempted by the Alliance’s protection and support but remained wary because he was not an Orthodox Intelligent Civilization and had secrets to protect.

• Li Qingsong welcomed Wei Luo and his delegation aboard through a clone posing as the Lantu Ke Head of State.
• Li Qingsong led Wei Luo through more than a dozen Yun Luo residential spaceships, where the visitors saw their people living in prosperous, healthy communities.
• At a conference, Wei Luo explained that the Red Star Alliance united civilizations within a protected Small Universe called a nation.
• Wei Luo offered to exchange Alliance Points for a membership qualification for the Lantu Ke Civilization in return for the wandering Yun Luo children, promising technological and developmental support.
• Li Qingsong considered the offer but recognized that joining the Alliance could expose secrets he needed to protect.

Li Qingsong learned why the Red Star Civilization had founded the Red Star Alliance, but declined to join for reasons he could not explain. Wei Luo then agreed to share intelligence about the universe despite the alliance’s rules, accepting that his civilization might be punished.

• Wei Luo explained that the Red Star Civilization nurtured allied civilizations to build trustworthy partners who could face the universe’s dangers while remaining independent.
• Li Qingsong thanked Wei Luo but refused to join the Red Star Alliance, saying his civilization had matters it could not explain.
• Wei Luo offered to let Li Qingsong’s civilization settle temporarily in the Red Star Nation, but Li Qingsong declined again.
• Li Qingsong asked Wei Luo to share intelligence about the universe instead of providing technology.
• Wei Luo said sharing intelligence was forbidden by the alliance, but agreed to do it and accept his civilization’s punishment.

Li Qingsong asked Wei Luo about the Milky Way’s Space Civilizations and learned that the Destroyer Civilization used nova explosions as a strategic weapon called the Cataclysm of Destruction. Wei Luo explained the threat posed by the Destroyers and why the Red Star Alliance was fighting the Space-grade Magic Eye, then identified one target of the weapon as a Dark Force-level Star Beast Cataclysm.

• Li Qingsong asked Wei Luo about Space Civilizations, their technology, and the Recorder Civilization, and Wei Luo shared what the Red Star Alliance knew.
• Li Qingsong showed Wei Luo data from an abnormal nova explosion, and Wei Luo identified it as the Destroyer Civilization’s Cataclysm of Destruction.
• Wei Luo explained that the Destroyers sought to eliminate all other intelligent life and possessed the Milky Way’s strongest military power.
• Wei Luo told Li Qingsong that the Red Star Alliance fought the Space-grade Magic Eye because the Destroyer Civilization had targeted the Perseus Alliance, and clarified that two apparent weapon strikes had occurred in different places.
• Wei Luo said one Cataclysm of Destruction strike had targeted a Dark Force-level Star Beast Cataclysm, whose herds devoured carbon-based life.

Li Qingsong learned more about the Destroyer Civilization and the Red Star Alliance’s plans to eliminate the Space-grade Magic Eye, then asked the Cloud Luo Civilization for help finding the Purple Moon Civilization. Wei Luo arranged a search through the Space Fluctuation Detection Network, while the two fleets reunited the Yun Luo Race and began repairs near a Star System.

• Wei Luo explained that the Red Star Civilization planned to use the war between the Destroyer Civilization and the Perseus Alliance as an opportunity to destroy the Space-grade Magic Eye.
• Li Qingsong asked why the Red Star Alliance would not support the Perseus Alliance against the Destroyer Civilization, and Wei Luo said cooperation would be difficult and might not be enough.
• Wei Luo checked the Cloud Luo Civilization’s database for information on the Purple Moon Civilization but found none, then offered to use Alliance Points to search the Space Fluctuation Detection Network.
• Li Qingsong accepted the offer and planned to dock at a nearby Star System while the search information was transmitted over roughly twenty years.
• Wei Luo and Li Qingsong announced that the Cloud Luo Civilization had been found, and members of the Yun Luo Race celebrated their reunion.
• The fleets docked near an ordinary Star System, where Li Qingsong began rebuilding his fleet’s industry while concealing some of its capacity from Wei Luo.

Li Qingsong received the Cloud Luo Civilization’s intelligence locating the likely route of the Purple Moon Civilization, bringing him closer to ending his thousand-year pursuit. As the Yun Luo People returned home, the Cloud Luo delegation gave him a single-use distress communicator and presented a chip whose purpose remained unrevealed.

• The Cloud Luo Passenger Fleet arrived, and more than six billion Yun Luo People transferred to their own Residential Spaceships before returning Li Qingsong’s original ships.
• The Deputy Head of State told Li Qingsong that the Purple Moon Civilization fleet was likely within a hundred light-years of a predicted stopping point near a white star.
• Li Qingsong thanked the Cloud Luo delegation for locating the fleet and considered how the prediction could guide his next search.
• The Deputy Head of State gave Li Qingsong a single-use Gravitational Wave Communication Device that would alert the Cloud Luo Civilization if his civilization faced destruction.
• The Deputy Head of State said the chip was the more important gift and pushed it across the table to Li Qingsong.

Li Qingsong accepted the Cloud Luo Civilization’s warning about the Purple Moon Civilization but decided to pursue it anyway, relying on his fleet and weapons. As his forces approached Piscis Austrinus H11, he detected a brief, unexplained dip in the star’s brightness.

• The Deputy Head of State gave Li Qingsong a gravitational-wave warning message backed by the Cloud Luo Civilization and the Red Star Alliance, and cautioned him that the Purple Moon Civilization might be nearing Gravitational Civilization status.
• Li Qingsong thanked the Deputy Head of State but chose to pursue the Purple Moon Civilization, hoping to recover the human captives and believing his own trump cards might give him a chance.
• The Cloud Luo Civilization fleet and Li Qingsong’s fleet parted ways, and Li Qingsong resupplied and reorganized his forces before setting out.
• As his fleet traveled toward Piscis Austrinus H11, Li Qingsong’s forces built new ships and combat systems and assembled deep-space detection arrays.
• Li Qingsong detected Piscis Austrinus H11 briefly dimming, and further analysis made his expression grave.