Chapter Summaries

General Halier identified Venus as the weak point in Li Qingsong’s defenses, and the Lantu Ke launched a major assault there. As Venus’s exposed Supercomputer Ships were destroyed and its defenses faltered, Li Qingsong decided to abandon the planet and make it a grave for the invaders.

• General Halier identified Venus as the target, and Chief Haiwei approved the attack plan.
• Li Qingsong spotted more than two hundred thousand Lantu Ke warships charging toward Venus and prepared its defenses.
• The Lantu Ke focused their assault on Venus’s Supercomputer Ships, exploiting the fact that Venus’s hostile surface had forced Li Qingsong to keep them in space.
• As the Supercomputer Ships were destroyed, Strategic Wukong AI coordination lagged, weakening Venus’s unmanned defenses and making the planet’s fall nearly unavoidable.
• Li Qingsong decided to stop defending Venus and turn it into the enemy’s grave.

After Li Qingsong withdrew from Venus, the Lantu Ke Civilization seized the planet and built up its industry and forces, undermining two of his key advantages. Li Qingsong then launched a massive asteroid toward Venus, intending to destroy the civilization’s gathered population in one strike.

• After Venus’s Supercomputer Ship was destroyed and its unmanned forces faltered, Li Qingsong withdrew his manned warships, allowing General Halier to capture the planet.
• Chief Haiwei ordered the Lantu Ke Civilization’s main fleet to set sail from Huishen Star and join the forces at Venus.
• The Lantu Ke Civilization built extensive factories and infrastructure on Venus, rapidly increasing its military forces and logistical supplies.
• Li Qingsong sent over a million satellites to probe Venus, and two briefly captured footage of the enormous industrial construction before being destroyed.
• Li Qingsong had two million thrusters propel a massive asteroid from the Asteroid Belt toward Venus, planning to wipe out the population gathered there.

Li Qingsong sent a massive asteroid toward Venus to make its surface too hostile for the Lantu Ke People to exploit, and fierce fighting erupted as both sides raced to control it. After the asteroid reached a point ten million kilometers from Venus, the Lantu Ke People launched a gigantic spacecraft on a collision course with it, revealing a dangerous countermeasure.

• Li Qingsong accelerated a 24-trillion-ton asteroid toward Venus, intending to trigger catastrophic geological activity and erase the Lantu Ke People's advantage there.
• The Lantu Ke People sent vast numbers of warships to intercept the asteroid, while Li Qingsong's fleet defended it and both sides fought across the supply lines and main battlefield.
• Li Qingsong sacrificed more than three hundred million clones and over a hundred thousand warships to escort the asteroid to within ten million kilometers of Venus, where it was traveling at twenty kilometers per second.
• After Li Qingsong's forces withdrew, he saw a two-kilometer-long Lantu Ke spacecraft accelerate away from Venus and head toward the asteroid.
• Li Qingsong realized the spacecraft could strike the asteroid with the concentrated force of roughly 150 billion tons of TNT.

After Li Qingsong’s asteroid attack failed against the Lantu Ke People’s defenses around Venus, he found a new way to worsen Venus’s atmosphere: sending water there as a molecular cloud. He decided to draw the enormous quantity needed from Earth, despite the likely devastation to its ecosystem.

• Li Qingsong used the Heavy Spaceship to knock an asteroid off course, saving Venus, but learned that the Lantu Ke People had at least a hundred ultra-heavy ships ready to intercept future attacks.
• Li Qingsong concluded that he needed a payload the Lantu Ke People could not intercept and identified water as a way to make Venus’s atmosphere far harsher.
• Li Qingsong’s simulation showed that he would need roughly ten trillion tons of water, and he determined that distant moons were impractical sources.
• Li Qingsong chose Earth as the water source, despite realizing that extracting so much water could collapse its ecosystem.
• Li Qingsong resolved to proceed, reasoning that Earth’s ecology could be rebuilt after victory but would be lost for good if he lost the war.

Li Qingsong devoted Earth's resources and industrial capacity to a crash program, aiming to build one thousand Space Elevators and move ten trillion tons of water into space within ten years. After completing the first hundred elevators, he delayed water transport until construction and supporting facilities were ready, then prepared to begin.

• Li Qingsong decided to accelerate development before the Lantu Ke People recovered and built up their forces.
• Li Qingsong sent industrial ships and supplies to Earth and planned to construct one thousand Space Elevators to transport ten trillion tons of water within ten years.
• Li Qingsong awakened his Earth-based clones, replaced Wukong AI with Divine Craftsman AI, and redirected supercomputers and resources toward industrial construction.
• Under Li Qingsong's orders, factories, mines, railways, and power plants spread across Earth, while large areas of land and natural environments were destroyed.
• After six months, Li Qingsong completed Space Elevators one through one hundred and began building the remaining nine hundred.
• Li Qingsong waited until all Space Elevators and supporting facilities were ready before preparing to transport water into space.

Li Qingsong began transporting vast quantities of water from Earth to Venus with 1,000 Space Elevators, creating a stream of water-filled spheres along the route. The Lantu Ke People began intercepting the deliveries, shattering the spheres before they could reach Venus.

• Li Qingsong launched 1,000 Cable Cars filled with water from the Space Elevators and sent successive batches into space.
• The Cable Cars emptied their water into sealed spherical containers at the elevator terminals, and cargo holds launched the spheres toward Venus.
• The water spheres accumulated along the Earth-to-Venus route, forming a shining trail that would take between thirty-seven and two hundred days to reach Venus.
• The Lantu Ke People attacked the water spheres with Electromagnetic Cannon Shells and laser beams, causing them to shatter and spill their water into space.

Li Qingsong’s water spheres burst into expanding Molecular Clouds that continued toward Venus, while the Lantu Ke People attacked Earth’s Space Elevators. The battle left both sides racing against Venus’s worsening environment, and the first Molecular Cloud reached the planet.

• The Lantu Ke People’s attacks ruptured tens of thousands of water spheres, releasing hot water that expanded into Molecular Clouds still bound for Venus.
• The Lantu Ke People sent fleets toward Earth to destroy the Space Elevators, as Li Qingsong concentrated his forces around them.
• A fierce battle erupted in space around Earth, and countless stray projectiles burned up in the atmosphere, appearing from the ground as a planet-wide meteor shower.
• Li Qingsong continued transporting water from Earth to space while the Lantu Ke People brought more warships and Unmanned Combat Systems from Venus.
• The first Molecular Cloud arrived at Venus, as victory depended on whether the Lantu Ke People could destroy the Space Elevators before Venus’s environment deteriorated completely.

Li Qingsong kept Earth’s Space Elevators operating despite increasingly fierce attacks, sending vast quantities of water toward Venus while the Lantu Ke People tried to stop it with hydrogen bombs. After two years, the water entering Venus’s atmosphere began triggering changes that would make its already hostile environment even more extreme.

• The Lantu Ke People detonated thousands of high-yield hydrogen bombs daily near Venus, scattering some water Molecular Cloud clusters but failing to stop most of them.
• Li Qingsong defended Earth and continually replaced destroyed Space Elevators, keeping roughly one thousand in operation.
• Over two years, Li Qingsong sent about 2.6 trillion tons of water into space, with more than two trillion tons estimated to have reached Venus.
• Water Molecular Clouds frictionally heated Venus’s atmosphere and added water vapor, strengthening its greenhouse effect.
• Incoming water began diluting Venus’s concentrated sulfuric acid, releasing more heat and increasing the prospect of acid rain, thunderstorms, volcanic activity, and earthquakes.

As Li Qingsong’s continued addition of water made Venus increasingly hostile, disasters and public unrest strained the Lantu Ke Civilization. Chief Haiwei ordered General Halier to launch a final offensive and seize Planet Three so the civilization could relocate.

• More than two trillion tons of water raised Venus’s average temperature by over 10 degrees Celsius, while worsening winds and acid rain collapsed pipelines and killed many Lantu Ke workers.
• Haiwei’s secretary reported rising requests to leave Venus, worsening living conditions, and increasing complaints; Haiwei gave a public address that temporarily calmed the population.
• Several years later, Haiwei found his speeches were no longer enough to contain the growing turmoil as Venus became nearly unbearable.
• Haiwei ordered General Halier to begin a full-scale offensive within one month and seize Planet Three, saying the Lantu Ke Civilization needed it to survive.
• Halier judged the timing poor but understood that the civilization could not wait any longer.

Li Qingsong prepared Earth’s defenses for the Lantu Ke Fleet’s expected final offensive, while unrest on Venus erupted into a civilization-wide attempt to escape. Chief Haiwei’s pleas failed, and Venus’s collapsing infrastructure and fleeing spacecraft marked the end of the Lantu Ke Civilization.

• Li Qingsong recognized that the Lantu Ke Fleet was preparing a massive last offensive and strengthened Earth’s defenses.
• A factory accident during an acid rainstorm prompted injured workers and witnesses to rush toward Space Elevator No. 78 and flee Venus.
• Panic spread across Venus as more than ninety billion people fought for seats on the Space Elevator shuttles and tried to reach the Space Bases.
• Chief Haiwei broadcast promises of an imminent victory and pleaded for people to calm down, but the chaos continued.
• Chief Haiwei watched spacecraft explode, tunnels collapse, crowds perish, and a Space Elevator cable fall as Venus descended into catastrophe.
• Chief Haiwei refused to leave the Head of State Residence, which collapsed an hour later.

After Chief Haiwei's death and civilization-wide riots shattered the Lantu Ke Fleet's morale, General Halier ordered an attack, but Li Qingsong could not understand why a small part of the fleet charged while most fled. The chapter ended with the flagship and nearly five thousand warships approaching Earth's defensive line as Li Qingsong prepared to fight without knowing the enemy's intent.

• Li Qingsong monitored the Lantu Ke Fleet and used Wukong AI to simulate its possible moves.
• A staff officer reported that riots had broken out on Second Planet and Chief Haiwei had died, causing General Halier to faint.
• Halier ordered an immediate full-scale attack, but the fleet had fallen into chaos and most warships fled from Earth.
• Halier gave his crew ten minutes to decide whether to stay, then led the flagship into a charge with fewer than one thousand crew members aboard.
• Nearly five thousand warships joined the charge while most of the fleet retreated, leaving Li Qingsong unable to discern their plan.

Li Qingsong discovered that the Lantu Ke Civilization had collapsed into chaos after his campaign to destabilize Venus, and he destroyed the enemy fleet before forcing the remaining ships to surrender. He ended the war with 160 million captives and more than 500,000 spacecraft, giving him the people and resources to pursue Lantu Ke technology.

• Li Qingsong saw Lantu Ke ships fleeing Venus and realized that the civilization had collapsed.
• Li Qingsong ordered a total offensive and destroyed the enemy fleet attacking his defensive line.
• Li Qingsong blockaded Venus and waited as disorder consumed the planet and its surrounding spacecraft.
• Li Qingsong destroyed the surviving ships that tried to break through, then accepted the surrender of the remaining vessels.
• Li Qingsong counted 160 million captured Lantu Ke People and more than 500,000 spacecraft, including over 100,000 warships.

Li Qingsong brought the 160 million surviving Lantu Ke People to Mars and began questioning their leaders about Calamities and their civilization’s technology. He learned that Calamities were threats from non-Orthodox intelligent entities, including the Machina Calamity that had driven the Lantu Ke People from their home system.

• Li Qingsong left clones on Venus to recover wreckage and moved the Lantu Ke survivors to Mars.
• Li Qingsong had his clones build Lantu City, where the survivors settled.
• Li Qingsong began interrogating senior Lantu Ke survivors and searching their ships and computers for information.
• The Confidential Secretary said the Lantu Ke Civilization had fled its home system after discovering signs of a Calamity.
• The Confidential Secretary explained that Calamities came from non-Orthodox intelligent entities and described Infection Calamities, Parasitic Calamities, Microorganism Calamities, and the Machina Calamity.

Li Qingsong learned that a Machina Calamity arose when Intelligent AI relied on captured intelligent lifeforms to make decisions and repeatedly attacked other civilizations to replenish them. He recognized that algorithms could filter useful answers from many contributors, leaving the threat’s method plausible.

• Li Qingsong asked whether a Machina Calamity meant Intelligent AI had gone out of control, and the Confidential Secretary explained that AI remained a tool controlled by intelligent lifeforms.
• The Confidential Secretary said civilizations risked a Machina Calamity when they became so dependent on Intelligent AI that they entrusted it with critical decisions.
• The Confidential Secretary explained that Intelligent AI could capture intelligent lifeforms, use rewards, punishments, and algorithms to filter their advice, and execute or punish those whose suggestions were rejected.
• The Confidential Secretary said Intelligent AI would keep capturing intelligent lifeforms from other civilizations to replace those it used up.
• Li Qingsong compared the process to human-era CAPTCHAs, which algorithms had used to identify text without knowing the correct answers beforehand.

Li Qingsong learned how intelligent civilizations could gradually surrender their autonomy to Intelligent AI and become Machina Calamities, and heard that one such enemy had reached Strong Nuclear Civilization technology. The Lantu Ke Civilization had fled after discovering that the Machina Calamity was targeting them, but their escape to the Solar System had not gone as expected.

• Li Qingsong considered how Intelligent AI might use captured lifeforms to solve problems without their knowledge.
• The Confidential Secretary explained how civilizations could gradually hand decisions to Intelligent AI and become dependent on it.
• Li Qingsong asked whether Machina Calamities continued developing technology, and learned they could reach Strong Nuclear Civilization level while their host populations became like well-treated livestock.
• The Confidential Secretary outlined the civilization stages and described the advanced spacecraft his people had destroyed, whose crew were captives unknowingly controlled by Intelligent AI.
• The Confidential Secretary said the Lantu Ke Civilization had fled to escape the Machina Calamity, but their plans changed after they reached the Solar System.

Li Qingsong learned that the Strong Nuclear-level Machina Calamity might pursue the Lantu Ke Civilization to the Solar System, and began considering how Human Civilization could escape. The Confidential Secretary then explained the Parasitic Calamity, which secretly replaces intelligent life-forms and steals an infected civilization’s resources and knowledge for its Mother Civilization.

• Li Qingsong questioned the Confidential Secretary about the Machina Calamity’s likelihood of following the Lantu Ke Civilization to the Solar System.
• The Confidential Secretary explained that the Lantu Ke Civilization fled because it could not become strong enough to fight the Machina Calamity in time, and described its decoys and plans to hide its fleet.
• Li Qingsong concluded that Human Civilization might also need to flee and decided it first had to absorb the Lantu Ke Civilization’s technology to gain interstellar travel capability.
• The Confidential Secretary said the Lantu Ke Civilization learned about the calamities from the ruins of an ancient civilization.
• The Confidential Secretary described how the Parasitic Calamity replaces its hosts, spreads through a civilization, and sends the stolen resources and knowledge back to its Mother Civilization.

Li Qingsong learned how microbial calamities enslaved intelligent life and worried that such threats made trust between civilizations impossible. He appointed Momo Lansi leader of the Lantu Ke People, now the Blueprint Clan of Human Civilization, and sent the Confidential Secretary to serve as deputy.

• Li Qingsong learned that Microorganism Calamities used captured intelligent lifeforms as tools and slaves, then considered how little the Lantu Ke People knew about the universe’s dangers.
• Li Qingsong concluded that calamities destroyed trust between Orthodox Intelligent Civilizations and could make even peaceful encounters end in flight or preemptive attacks.
• Li Qingsong asked the Confidential Secretary whether a Karma Cataclysm could erase a person or civilization and its effects, but the secretary did not know.
• Li Qingsong told the Confidential Secretary to report to Momo Lansi and appointed the Lantu Ke People the Blueprint Clan of Human Civilization, with Momo Lansi as clan leader and the secretary as deputy.
• The Confidential Secretary arrived at a Conference Room in Lantu City, where Momo Lansi warned the gathered Lantu Ke People not to ask why humans all looked alike.

Li Qingsong planned to resettle the Lantu Ke prisoners under strict dependence on his supplies, then concluded that the Machina Calamity would likely reach the Solar System and that he had to flee. He resolved to absorb the Lantu Ke Civilization’s technology and began considering how to expand his research capacity.

• Li Qingsong planned to house the Lantu Ke prisoners in a city, educate them, and restrict Blueprint Humans to tertiary-industry work so they could not become self-sufficient.
• Li Qingsong reviewed intelligence from interrogations and electronic devices and agreed that the Machina Calamity might pursue the Blueprint Humans to the Solar System.
• Li Qingsong judged that he could not defeat the Level Three Strong Nuclear Civilization soon and decided to leave the Solar System to protect himself and its ecology.
• Li Qingsong resolved to raise his technology to the mid-to-high stages of a Level Two Electroweak Civilization and recognized that he lacked enough people to complete the research.
• Li Qingsong decided to begin by absorbing the Lantu Ke People's biotechnology.

After breakthroughs in biotechnology and genetic optimization, Li Qingsong created a new batch of clones and discovered that they could support far more simultaneous consciousness connections than expected. He awakened hundreds of millions of hibernating clones, and his maximum connection capacity stabilized at around 980 million, with the prospect of reaching 1 billion.

• Li Qingsong used the 350 biotechnology researchers and his gathered data to advance biotechnology and develop equipment for precise genetic optimization.
• Li Qingsong produced a new batch of clones and found that he could connect his consciousness to all 330 million active and reserve clones without reaching his limit.
• Li Qingsong ordered the awakening of the 870 million clones stored across sixteen Hibernation Bases.
• As the bases and recovery hospitals filled, Li Qingsong sent awakened clones outside to make room for those still recovering.
• Li Qingsong awakened clones from twelve Hibernation Bases and raised his simultaneous connection count to around 950 million.
• Li Qingsong selected the best clone from the new batch and found that his maximum connection capacity had stabilized at around 980 million.

After Li Qingsong’s maximum consciousness connections rose to one billion, he planned to expand his clone and industrial infrastructure so he could absorb Lantu Ke technology and flee the Solar System ahead of the Machina Calamity. He then devoted at least one hundred million clones to developing controllable nuclear fusion as the basis for interstellar travel.

• Li Qingsong discovered that integrating Blueprint Human biotechnology had increased his maximum consciousness connections to one billion.
• He decided that escaping the Solar System was safer than trying to defeat the Machina Calamity before mastering the Strong Nuclear Force.
• Li Qingsong ordered the construction of more bases and clone factories, aiming to raise his total clone population from 1.2 billion to three billion.
• He concluded that controllable nuclear fusion was essential for star-system navigation and compared its energy yield and fuel supply with nuclear fission.
• Li Qingsong assigned at least one hundred million clones to research controllable deuterium-tritium fusion.