Chapter Summaries

Li Qingsong connected factories and facilities across the base cluster with chips and a network, boosting industrial efficiency fivefold. With the groundwork in place, he began construction of the massive Clone Cultivation Factory Cluster and looked toward eventually building spacecraft.

• Li Qingsong installed a giant Supercomputer and more than 200,000 chips at Steel Factory No. 1, automating data processing and reducing clone bodies’ workload.
• Li Qingsong spread Iron Shell Chips throughout factories, transport lines, farms, power plants, and vehicles, while a new Network Cable Factory linked the Main Base and Branch Bases.
• Li Qingsong estimated that informatization had raised the base cluster’s production efficiency to the equivalent of 300,000 clone bodies.
• Li Qingsong began constructing the ten-million-square-meter Clone Cultivation Factory Cluster, aiming to produce 100,000 clone bodies annually.
• Li Qingsong considered the prospect of manufacturing spacecraft as tens of thousands of clone bodies and machines gathered at the construction site.

Li Qingsong devoted tens of thousands of clones to building a vast factory cluster and expanding mines and railways to support future population growth. After a year, the Clone Cultivation Factory was ready, and the first fifty thousand high-quality clones began developing in its Culture Pods.

• Li Qingsong assigned fifty thousand clones to the factory-cluster project, sent five thousand to build mines, and reserved the remaining five thousand for daily operations and supplies.
• The clones constructed factories, power infrastructure, and Railway Lines while Li Qingsong’s Iron Shell Chips and communications network enabled a small workforce to manage logistics and maintenance.
• Li Qingsong completed the Culture Medium Preparation Factory and the thirty-floor Clone Cultivation Factory, outfitting the latter with three hundred thousand Iron Shell Chips.
• After a year of construction, the clones prepared culture medium infused with purified Strange Bird Body Fluid and loaded fifty thousand sample cells into Culture Pods.
• The Clone Cultivation Factory’s generators powered the development of the first fifty thousand high-quality clones.

Li Qingsong completed a new batch of fifty thousand clones, bringing his total to nearly 110,000 and giving him enough manpower to run all 269 bases. With production underway and clones left over, he established a comprehensive Technology Development Department to pursue research across modern technology.

• Li Qingsong awakened fifty thousand newly cultivated clones, tested their consciousness-link capacity, and found a clone body that could support 109,800 links.
• Li Qingsong assigned the new clones to mines, factories, breeding farms, and other facilities, then began cultivating another batch.
• Li Qingsong calculated that he would eventually need up to one million clones to maintain operations and provide scheduling reserves.
• Li Qingsong brought all 269 bases to full capacity, with thirty thousand clones temporarily idle.
• Li Qingsong used the idle clones to establish a scientific research institution with specialized departments covering materials, machinery, optics, chemistry, computing, and other fields.

Li Qingsong’s research base developed modern chip manufacturing and numerous other technologies, transforming production across Luoshen Star. With 1.2 million clone bodies, 535 bases, and a vast railway network under his command, he turned his attention to developing aerospace technology.

• Li Qingsong’s R&D base completed its first major breakthrough by developing modern chip manufacturing technology.
• Li Qingsong upgraded the Chip Factory, which began producing ten million micron-scale chips each year and replaced the old Iron Shell Chips across production.
• Dedicated research clone bodies achieved breakthroughs in machine tools, steel, casting, engines, and power generation, while Li Qingsong improved clone cultivation through biotechnology.
• Li Qingsong increased his simultaneous consciousness connections to five hundred thousand clone bodies, and his total clone population surpassed one million, reaching 1.2 million.
• Li Qingsong expanded his command to 535 bases covering more than five million square kilometers and turned his attention toward aerospace technology.

Li Qingsong began developing aerospace technology on Luoshen Star and solved the engine’s heat-resistance problem by coordinating thousands of clones on materials research. He tested a hemispherical flying vehicle that rose more than ten meters above the ground.

• Li Qingsong established an Aerospace Technology Research Base to develop vehicles that could fly between Luoshen Star’s surface and space.
• The first methane-and-liquid-oxygen engine test produced too little thrust, and Li Qingsong realized he needed better heat-resistant materials.
• Li Qingsong assigned a thousand clones to materials research and distributed thousands more shares of mental capacity to analyze the problem.
• The researchers developed a nickel-and-tungsten heat-resistant metal, allowing the engine to meet its thrust target in a second test.
• Li Qingsong ordered a four-meter-tall, eight-meter-wide hemispherical craft to ignite, and it rose more than ten meters into the air.

Li Qingsong and his research clones refined a rocket-powered aircraft into the mass-produced Flying Sky Type-1, enabling faster transport across Luoshen Star. It could circle the planet but still fell short of the speed needed to enter orbit or escape its gravity.

• After the first brief ignition test, Li Qingsong's clones dismantled the aircraft and studied its heat- and pressure-damaged engine and injector components.
• With tens of thousands of research clones working on improvements, Li Qingsong produced increasingly successful prototypes and finalized the aircraft model after half a year of testing and optimization.
• Li Qingsong tested Flying Sky Type-1, which reached 2,000 kilometers per hour, circled Luoshen Star, and landed safely.
• Li Qingsong ordered mass production to speed the movement of urgent cargo and personnel between bases.
• More than ten thousand clones started the production lines, and Flying Sky Type-1 spacecraft began flying across Luoshen Star.

Li Qingsong rapidly mass-produced and improved Flying Sky Type-1 spaceships, then launched the first Opening Heaven Type-1 into orbit and docked it with the Deep Space. As he began planning a large Space Laboratory and testing spaceships in space, he discovered an unfamiliar metal object nearby.

• Li Qingsong put Flying Sky Type-1 spaceships into mass production, and repeated failures led to crashes and explosions that exposed flaws for his engineers to fix.
• After more than three hundred spaceships were destroyed or scrapped, Li Qingsong launched the Opening Heaven Type-1 into orbit around Luoshen Star.
• The Opening Heaven Type-1 docked with the Deep Space, and its clones and supplies completed the first space cargo operation.
• Li Qingsong decided to build a large Space Laboratory and began transporting construction materials while testing and improving spaceships in space.
• During a routine flight test, Li Qingsong spotted a curved metal object he did not recognize and maneuvered his spaceship toward it.

Li Qingsong discovered that an unknown entity had lured the Strange Birds to Luoshen Star with an infrared signal, apparently hoping they would kill him. He ordered an emergency push to build a massive Space Laboratory within a year so he could advance military and space-observation technology, leaving his clones mobilized across the planet.

• Li Qingsong salvaged an orbital fragment and identified its remnants as an infrared light-excitation device.
• Li Qingsong realized the device had emitted a signal matching the Strange Birds’ preferred food, drawing them toward Luoshen Star.
• Li Qingsong concluded that an unknown entity had used the Strange Birds as a borrowed weapon against him.
• Li Qingsong scanned space with every observation device he had, but found nothing.
• Li Qingsong ordered the Space Laboratory completed within one year and mobilized his clones to begin the work.

Li Qingsong expanded spaceship production and fuel, chip, and resource output to support construction of a Space Laboratory in orbit. His bases and 700,000 consciousness-link slots operated near capacity as spacecraft carried materials into space and clones began assembling the laboratory.

• Li Qingsong ordered his precision machinery plants to expand spaceship production, and a new assembly line reached an output of four spaceships per day.
• He scaled up methane, oxygen, tholin, and other resource production to meet the rising demands of spaceship flights and factory power.
• Li Qingsong increased chip production as spaceship components and the planned Space Laboratory required tens of millions of chips.
• Factories, mines, research centers, and food-production bases all intensified operations, pushing Li Qingsong's consciousness-link slots close to their limit.
• Spaceships transported construction materials into orbit while thousands of suited clones assembled components for the Space Laboratory.

Li Qingsong completed a massive Space Laboratory above Luoshen Star and put thousands of research projects into operation, producing breakthroughs that rapidly improved his technology and industry. The chapter ended with a new glass-manufacturing breakthrough that would let him build high-performance Space Telescopes and search space actively.

• Li Qingsong completed the Space Laboratory, stocked it with equipment and clones, and established its supply operations.
• The research clones produced breakthroughs in spacecraft hull materials, chip manufacturing, attitude control, and high-sensitivity space radar.
• Further discoveries were rapidly applied across Li Qingsong's bases and factories, increasing efficiency, production, and spacecraft capacity.
• A breakthrough in low-expansion, high-purity, highly uniform glass gave Li Qingsong the means to build high-performance Space Telescopes and conduct active space searches.

Li Qingsong built a fleet of Space Telescopes to survey the sky around Luoshen Star, though their observations could not yet reveal Earth in detail. The survey detected a nearby Dwarf Planet with an unexplained supply of gas, giving Li Qingsong a possible lead in his search for the hidden enemy.

• Li Qingsong completed and installed a Space Telescope with a six-meter primary mirror in Luoshen Star's orbital path.
• The telescope gathered data from Earth, but Li Qingsong could not see it clearly because it was more than fifteen billion kilometers away.
• Li Qingsong built more than a dozen telescopes and arranged them to survey the Celestial Sphere while his research clones and factories continued their work.
• Space Telescope No. 3 detected a dim Dwarf Planet, and five telescopes measured it at slightly more than forty million kilometers from Luoshen Star.
• Li Qingsong found evidence of gas around the Dwarf Planet and concluded that some source there must be replenishing it.

After discovering signs of industrial life on a nearby dwarf planet, Li Qingsong feared the inhabitants had attacked him and began preparing for a possible conflict. He redirected most of his workforce to mass-produce battleships, and the first vessel reached space armed and fueled.

• Li Qingsong inferred that intelligent beings on a dwarf planet 40 million kilometers away had produced its industrial gases and might have used an Infrared Bomb against Luoshen Star.
• Li Qingsong decided to develop deep-space detection and communication technologies while building as many battleships as possible for defense.
• Li Qingsong assigned tens of thousands of clones to design his first-generation battleship and moved most other research clones into production.
• Li Qingsong’s first battleship was completed after half a month and hundreds of design revisions.
• The 120-ton battleship launched into space carrying machine guns, autocannons, guided missiles, and a full tank of liquid oxygen and methane.

Li Qingsong tested the Mercury-class Battleship, the smallest warship in his plans, against a series of target ships. The ship destroyed all twelve targets in less than five hours, completing its first combat drill.

• Li Qingsong assigned seven clones to operate the Mercury-class Battleship’s weapons, flight controls, communications, and logistics.
• The pilot accelerated the warship out of Luoshen Star’s gravitational field toward an abandoned cargo ship.
• The crew fired machine guns and autocannons at the first targets, destroying them with coordinated aim and recoil control.
• When the fifth target evaded several volleys, the missile operator launched an Interstellar Missile that caught and destroyed it.
• The Mercury-class Battleship destroyed all twelve target ships, including those that fled, maneuvered, deployed interference, or carried heavy armor.

After a costly battle, Li Qingsong decided to prioritize expanding battleship production, building a massive space logistics base, and establishing a deep-space communication network. A new Culture Medium showed promise, and he began cultivating one hundred clones to increase his consciousness link capacity.

• Li Qingsong returned in the Mercury-class Battleship and calculated that the short battle had consumed vast amounts of fuel and ammunition.
• He decided to build a large integrated logistics base in space, expand battleship production, and establish a Deep Space Communication Network.
• Li Qingsong estimated that his current clones were nearly fully occupied and that he needed to raise his consciousness link count to one million.
• After more than ten days of experiments, Li Qingsong found that the new Culture Medium accelerated the growth and vitality of laboratory mice, rabbits, and human cells.
• Li Qingsong sent more than twenty thousand clones to upgrade the Culture Medium and Clone Cultivation factories, then began cultivating a first batch of one hundred clones.

Li Qingsong linked with a new clone whose consciousness capacity reached 1.0955 million, bringing hundreds of thousands more clones into his network and enabling his stalled industrial projects to expand. The chapter ended with his immense production effort completing the first two of his Three Goals in less than two years.

• Li Qingsong discovered that one of his 100 new clones had a consciousness link capacity of 1.0955 million and transferred into that body.
• Li Qingsong linked roughly 400,000 previously unlinked clones, staffing his idle mines, refineries, factories, and production lines.
• Li Qingsong expanded food production and began building the Space Base while ramping up production of ammunition, missiles, spacecraft, and construction materials.
• Li Qingsong's 1.1 million clones produced hundreds of millions of tons of materials and equipment each year, and the first two of his Three Goals were completed in less than two years.

Li Qingsong completed a heavily defended space base and assembled a fleet of 500 Mercury-class Battleships, then put them through costly combat exercises. After finishing the Deep Space Communication Network, he launched a probe toward Adversary Star.

• Li Qingsong completed No. 1 Space Base, stocking it with fuel, oxygen, weapons, and supplies and equipping it with extensive defenses.
• Li Qingsong assembled 500 Mercury-class Battleships and sent them into deep space for combat exercises, which consumed tens of thousands of tons of materials.
• Li Qingsong continued the fleet drills while directing clones to complete research on the Deep Space Communication Network.
• Li Qingsong designed and built the network with 100 large antennas and thousands of satellites around Luoshen Star and the Sun.
• Li Qingsong launched a probe as soon as the communications network was completed.

Li Qingsong sent stealth probes to observe Adversary Star and discovered a damaged five-kilometer spacecraft, a small settlement, and a fleet using advanced ion propulsion. The fleet accelerated toward Luoshen Star, but the probe lost contact before Li Qingsong could learn more.

• Li Qingsong launched more than a hundred stealth probes toward Adversary Star while preparing for war.
• A probe spotted a spacecraft at least five kilometers long orbiting Adversary Star and a settlement covering about twenty square kilometers.
• Li Qingsong confirmed the large spacecraft was damaged and observed around forty smaller craft around it.
• Around thirty smaller craft departed Adversary Star using propulsion that resembled high-power ion propulsion.
• Li Qingsong saw the craft heading toward Luoshen Star, then the probe lost contact.

Li Qingsong realized the approaching spacecraft belonged to a civilization with High-Speed Ion Propulsion Technology and concluded he could not defeat them in a direct fight. He mobilized his industry to mass-produce gunpowder weapons and sent his five hundred Mercury-class Battleships toward Adversary Star.

• Li Qingsong identified the unknown spacecraft’s propulsion as High-Speed Ion Propulsion Technology and suspected they came from another star system.
• Li Qingsong reasoned that the ships might be preparing to attack after their mothership had recovered, and decided not to fight them head-on.
• Li Qingsong shut down nonessential posts and assigned 900,000 consciousness-link slots and clones to producing guns and bullets.
• Li Qingsong ordered all five hundred Mercury-class Battleships to leave their space station, enter hangars, and then accelerate toward Adversary Star.

Li Qingsong used fifty scattered fleets to keep the enemy focused on defending Adversary Star while Luoshen Star secretly expanded its arms production. After more than five months of delaying the enemy, his first 250 warships assembled near Adversary Star and faced an immediate attack.

• Li Qingsong sent fifty small fleets along separate routes toward Adversary Star, prompting the enemy to recall its forces and prepare to defend its base and mothership.
• Li Qingsong expanded production at Luoshen Star, increasing output to 420 million specialized bullets and 20,000 specialized guns per day.
• Li Qingsong alternated between slowing and accelerating his fleets to prevent the enemy from leaving Adversary Star to attack Luoshen Star.
• After more than five months, the first 250 warships assembled near Adversary Star and accelerated toward it.
• The enemy warships charged the arriving fleet and opened fire before reaching combat range, and Li Qingsong welcomed the fight.

Li Qingsong sacrificed two waves of disguised Cargo Ships to deceive the enemy near Adversary Star and buy time while preparing on Luoshen Star. After destroying the second wave, the enemy warships abruptly abandoned their expedition and returned to the mothership in alarm.

• Li Qingsong sent 250 disguised Cargo Ships toward Adversary Star, let the enemy destroy them, and gathered data showing their warships used powerful Electromagnetic Cannon Shells.
• Li Qingsong watched the enemy inspect the wreckage and correctly guessed that they would stay near their mothership to await another fleet.
• Li Qingsong delayed for more than a month, then sent a second wave of twenty-five small fleets, consisting of another 250 disguised Cargo Ships.
• The enemy destroyed the second wave within hours, then gathered its forty-five warships and prepared to launch an expedition.
• The forty-five enemy warships suddenly halted and returned to the mothership in a panic.