Chapter Summaries

Wang Dong's group cleared a safer route through the Weijing River with Giant Tooth Star Shark Pheromone while discussing radar upgrades and funding. Meanwhile, the merchant fleet encountered five Star Owls and sent Wang Dong a coded plea for help as it endured their attacks and continued toward the Dark Peng.

• Wang Dong agreed to release Giant Tooth Star Shark Pheromone, driving nearby Star Owls away and creating a safer area for the merchant fleet.
• Gao Luanqin complained about her workload and lack of research funding, while Mada argued that the Dark Peng needed better intelligence capabilities.
• Wang Dong identified an approaching fleet as likely belonging to the Phoenix Family and said he would address it after meeting the merchant fleet.
• Xu Zhenzhi warned Captain Taylor that five Star Owls had intercepted the merchant fleet and that fighting back might attract more predators.
• Captain Taylor ordered the ships to endure the Star Owls' attacks with their energy shields and keep moving toward Wang Dong's location.
• Zheng Yan and Li Zi Qing persuaded the fleet to send Wang Dong a coded request for help while the two ships pressed onward under attack.

The Dark Peng rescued the merchant caravan from five Star Owls and escorted it to safety, where Wang Dong learned about its losses and Xu Zhenzhi’s role. Wang Dong then announced that he would confront the Phoenix Family’s pursuing fleet and rescue the captured crew, while the caravan offered to join him.

• Gao Luanqin reported the caravan’s distress call, and the Dark Peng raced to its position.
• Shi Zunhou destroyed all five Star Owls with the Dark Peng’s secondary cannons, and Wang Dong led the caravan’s surviving warships to the cleared safe zone.
• Wang Dong thanked Xu Zhenzhi for helping the caravan and told everyone that the Phoenix Family would answer for the lost cargo, sunken warship, and captured crew.
• Wang Dong said he had located the pursuing fleet and would deal with it and rescue the captured crew.
• Old Taylor, Zheng Yan, Li Zi Qing, and the caravan’s crew volunteered to fight, but Wang Dong wanted them to rest and kept the Dark Peng’s full combat capabilities from them.

Wang Dong rescued the merchant convoy prisoners by capturing the Phoenix Banner and its fleet, then welcomed Philip, who had predicted their defeat, into the Viscountcy of Black Stone. Philip’s arrival left Wang Dong recognizing him as the future Revolutionary Army logistics master.

• Wang Dong refused the merchant convoy’s request to join the fight because the Dark Peng planned to divert the starbeast horde toward the Phoenix Family’s pursuing fleet.
• Manet Phoenix discovered that Philip had gone to interrogate prisoners, then saw an unknown warship destroy his six destroyers and attack the Phoenix Banner.
• Wang Dong’s forces quickly captured the Phoenix Banner, rescued the merchant convoy prisoners, and took Manet Phoenix captive.
• The prisoners told Wang Dong that Philip had stopped crew members from harming them and had arranged for them to testify that he had defected.
• Philip explained that he had recognized Wang Dong’s cipher and predicted that the Phoenix Banner would become a target, but Manet Phoenix had rejected his warning.
• Philip asked Wang Dong to accept him, and Wang Dong welcomed him into the Viscountcy of Black Stone.

After capturing the Phoenix Banner, Wang Dong secured Xu Zhenzhi’s cooperation for an expedition to the Luxi Civilization ruins in exchange for one find other than the Abyss Eye. Xu Zhenzhi revealed that the ruins would open in less than ten days, while Wang Dong began demonstrating how quickly his formation could escort the convoy through the Weijing River.

• Wang Dong ordered the convoy to rest for a day before setting out for the Viscountcy of Black Stone.
• Xu Zhenzhi met Wang Dong and proposed cooperating to explore the Luxi Civilization ruins.
• Wang Dong offered Xu Zhenzhi one ruin find of his choice, except for the Abyss Eye, and Xu Zhenzhi agreed to join the expedition.
• Xu Zhenzhi told Wang Dong that the ruins would open again in less than ten days and promised to guide the convoy out of the Weijing River within seven days.
• Over the next three days, Wang Dong led the formation through the Weijing River, then raised the Dark Peng’s shield and accelerated to full throttle.

Wang Dong led the Dark Peng out of the Weijing River with the rescued group, met Chen Shayi and the viscount’s fleet, then returned to the Luxi Civilization’s ruins. He asked Xu Zhenzhi to command the coming expedition as they discussed the ruins’ unstable subspace and the mysteries of ancient civilizations.

• The Dark Peng charged through the Weijing River and brought Wang Dong’s group out in three and a half days.
• Wang Dong met Chen Shayi and the viscount’s fleet, learned that both Phoenix Banner cruisers had been recovered, and advised the viscount not to act against the Phoenix Family yet.
• Wang Dong told Chen Shayi he planned a short return trip into the Weijing River, accepted his offer to provide more crew, and gave him instructions before departing.
• The Dark Peng returned to the Luxi Civilization’s airspace in two and a half days, with Xu Zhenzhi guiding them around areas frequented by powerful star beasts.
• Xu Zhenzhi explained that spatial rifts indicated the ruins’ subspace was becoming unstable, and Wang Dong asked him to command the expedition and estimate when the ruins would appear.

Wang Dong agreed to let Xu Zhenzhi lead the expedition into the ruins, but the nearby Star Qiu had to be dealt with first. After the Dark Peng killed it and the crew feasted on its meat, spatial rifts appeared, and Xu Zhenzhi explained that the subspace ruins were becoming unstable.

• Xu Zhenzhi warned Wang Dong that a level-five Star Qiu nested near the ruins’ entrance and had to be killed before the expedition could enter safely.
• Shi Zunhou fired the Scorpio Death Ray Cannon, fatally wounding the Star Qiu, and Gao Luanqin led the crew to collect its remains.
• The Dark Peng occupied the Star Qiu’s nest and spread Giant Tooth Star Shark Pheromone nearby while the crew ate the beast’s meat for two days.
• Wang Dong and Zhou Tai noticed progress in the advanced stage of the Body Forging Technique after eating the Star Qiu’s nutritious parts.
• Three days later, frequent spatial rifts appeared near the nest, and Xu Zhenzhi theorized that failing equipment was causing the subspace to overlap with normal space and could eventually lead to the ruins’ destruction.

Wang Dong sent Xu Zhenzhi and Zhou Tai to explore a Luxi Civilization space fortress while he stayed aboard the Dark Peng. They recovered the Abyss Eye, which had lost its original function but was still intact, and Zhou Tai considered the mission a success.

• The spatial rifts subsided, revealing a damaged golden Luxi Civilization space fortress that Xu Zhenzhi identified as a top-grade '800' fortress.
• Wang Dong ordered Zhou Tai to lead the exploration team with Xu Zhenzhi and told them to retreat if danger arose, while he remained aboard the Dark Peng.
• Xu Zhenzhi led the team into the fortress through a lower-level opening and deduced that its occupants had dragged it and its invaders into subspace, where both sides perished.
• The team searched the wreckage and found little besides the intact, one-meter-wide Abyss Eye, which had lost its original function.
• Xu Zhenzhi left disappointed, but Zhou Tai was satisfied because they had recovered Wang Dong's primary objective.

After the exploration team returned from the ruins, Wang Dong claimed the Abyss Eye and expanded Dark Peng’s hull to make room for it. Three days later, he returned to the Viscountcy of Black Stone, arranged protection for the Viscount and the three little ones, and entered a Level 3 Otherworldly Space battlefield, where the Tracking Beacon revealed an entity.

• The exploration team left the ruins safely, and Wang Dong activated Dark Peng’s Biochemical Medical Pod and Purple Spore Membrane as precautions.
• Wang Dong gave Xu Zhenzhi the other spoils and a personal payment, and the two agreed to work together again.
• Wang Dong claimed the Abyss Eye without revealing its attributes to Xu Zhenzhi or the exploration team, then upgraded Dark Peng’s Hull Structure to LV.6 to add auxiliary module slots.
• Three days later, Dark Peng returned to the Viscountcy of Black Stone, where Xu Zhenzhi stayed while awaiting the promised payment for the merchant fleet.
• Wang Dong invited the Viscount and the three little ones aboard Dark Peng and granted them crew status so the Saint’s Crown would protect them.
• On May 21, Wang Dong entered a Level 3 Otherworldly Space battlefield and found an entity marked by the Star Hunter’s Crown Tracking Beacon.

Wang Dong confirmed that two Otherworldly Space battlefields were in the same universe and learned that the Star Ape Civilization had advanced to Level 3 in just two thousand years. The analysis revealed that the Star Apes had found a Level 7 civilization heritage left by the extinct Sarnos Civilization.

• Wang Dong sensed the Tracking Beacon again in the Otherworldly Space and concluded that the current battlefield and the previous one were in the same universe.
• Wang Dong and the Dark Peng crew reviewed intelligence showing the Star Ape Civilization was a Level 3 interstellar civilization only 2,020 years old.
• Mada, Gao Luanqin, and the others considered how the Star Ape Civilization could have developed so quickly and suspected it had obtained a civilization heritage.
• The analysis identified the heritage as a Level 7 compilation left by the extinct Sarnos Civilization, which had once reached Level 8.
• The analysis revealed that the Star Apes found the heritage after nuclear war nearly wiped out their planet’s former dominant species, then rose to become the planet’s rulers and a Level 3 civilization.

Wang Dong discovered that the Thanos Civilization Heritage was a one-time Orange Quality module and weighed its benefits against the Dark Peng’s needs. After his crew devised a plan to make the Star Ape Civilization move the treasure out of its deep-sea base, the Dark Peng openly returned to the planet and drew a warning from its defenders.

• Mada and Zhou Tai urged Wang Dong to use Spiritual Detection, which revealed the Thanos Civilization Heritage and its two powerful traits.
• Wang Dong considered whether to use the heritage to boost Source Point acquisition or upgrade a module, then set aside the decision until he obtained it.
• Wang Dong learned that the heritage was inside a heavily guarded deep-sea base on the Star Ape Civilization’s home planet, while three space fortresses and about ten thousand warships protected the system.
• Wu Baiyi proposed a plan inspired by the Straw Hat Pirate Group: make the Star Ape Civilization move the heritage so the Dark Peng could intercept it.
• The concealed Dark Peng left the system, dropped its concealment, and returned toward the planet, where the Star Ape Civilization warned it to leave.

The Dark Peng confronted the Star Ape Civilization’s fleet and began a battle, using its secondary guns to destroy the fighters and ten high-speed warships sent against it. The Star Ape fleet continued probing the warship’s defenses while Shi Zunhou and Wu Baiyi kept the Dark Peng from using its main guns.

• Wang Dong identified the Dark Peng as the Kunpeng of the Pan-Universal Human Alliance and warned the Star Ape Civilization to move aside.
• The Star Ape Civilization raised its defenses and advanced its fleet toward the Dark Peng, refusing to abandon its homeworld.
• The Star Ape commander launched fighters, and Shi Zunhou deployed all sixteen secondary guns to tear through the incoming swarm.
• Wu Baiyi rammed the few fighters that passed the guns, while the Dark Peng continued to hold back its main weapons.
• The Star Ape commander ordered ten high-speed warships to probe the Dark Peng, whose boosted secondary guns riddled and shattered them.

The Kunpeng tested the Star Ape Civilization’s defenses, prompting its leaders to sound the alarm, prepare for invasion, and evacuate the Thanos Civilization Heritage and their highest decision-making body. Wang Dong’s group tracked the evacuation and celebrated as their plan succeeded when the heritage and leaders departed aboard a seed fleet.

• The Kunpeng fought off a hundred Star Ape Civilization high-speed warships, then warned that an allied fleet would arrive in one planetary rotation.
• The Star Ape Civilization’s leaders assessed the Kunpeng as at least a peak Level 3 Civilization threat and called for reinforcements from their colony planets.
• The Star Ape Civilization activated its highest-level alarm, moved its population into shelters, and launched seed fleets as an emergency measure.
• Wang Dong told Shi Zunhou that the Supernova Burst Cannon could not reach some underground shelters, but said the Thanos Civilization Heritage was the main target.
• Mada spotted the Thanos Civilization Heritage and the Star Ape Civilization’s leaders boarding a warship that joined a seed fleet, and the group celebrated their successful plan.

The Dark Peng ambushed the Star Ape Civilization fleet carrying the Thanos Civilization Heritage and seized the artifact. Back on the Star Ape homeworld, the civilization prepared for battle, unaware that the Dark Peng had already escaped with its prize.

• The Dark Peng followed the seed fleet carrying the Thanos Civilization Heritage and waited for the Mirage System's Buffer Time to end before activating stealth again.
• Wang Dong ordered Zhou Tai to destroy the Star Ape forces, and Wu Baiyi piloted the Dark Peng alongside the heritage's warship.
• Shi Zunhou disabled the warship with the Dark Peng's guns and Scorpio Death Ray Cannon while Zhou Tai and armed robots boarded it and defeated its crew.
• Zhou Tai used a tractor beam to bring the Thanos Civilization Heritage aboard the Dark Peng after the surrounding space was secured.
• The Star Ape Civilization mobilized its defenses and reinforcement fleets, but the Dark Peng had already taken the heritage and no longer needed to hide its strength.

The Dark Peng destroyed the Star Ape Civilization’s fleet and homeworld, earning Wang Dong more than 200,000 Source Points alongside the Thanos Civilization Heritage. It left before reinforcements arrived and returned to the main universe when the twenty-four-hour limit expired.

• The Dark Peng destroyed the Star Ape Civilization’s outposts, incoming warships, main fleet, and space fortresses with its Supernova Burst Cannons.
• The Dark Peng descended to the Star Ape Civilization’s homeworld and wiped out nearly all life on the planet in twenty minutes.
• Wang Dong ignored the surviving elites and high-ranking members, judging that destroying their shelters would yield too few Source Points.
• The Dark Peng gained 231,580 Source Points, doubled by the Auxiliary System, in addition to acquiring the Thanos Civilization Heritage.
• The Dark Peng left the ruined homeworld before the Star Ape Civilization’s reinforcements could arrive and returned to the main universe after twenty-four hours.

Wang Dong’s crew discussed the Dark Peng’s shortcomings and decided to save the Sarnoth Civilization Legacy and their Source Points rather than spend them hastily. After Xu Zhenzhi delivered a High-grade Energy Crystal, Wang Dong used it to activate the Abyss Eye’s trait selection after feeding it the Explorer Sky Patrol Radar, and discovered a Gold Quality option among the possible mutations.

• Mada advised Wang Dong to save the Thanos Civilization Heritage and Source Points until the Dark Peng’s broader needs became clearer.
• Gao Luanqin asked whether the crew could learn from the Sarnoth Civilization Legacy, but Mada explained that it could not be copied or read for useful data.
• On May 31, Xu Zhenzhi delivered the only High-grade Energy Crystal he had found to Wang Dong.
• Wang Dong spent 60 Source Points to replace the Explorer Sky Patrol Radar with the Abyss Eye, then fed the removed radar to the Abyss Eye.
• Wang Dong used the High-grade Energy Crystal to activate Module Trait Self-Selection and found a Gold Quality mutation among the possible traits.

Wang Dong chose the gold-quality Spiritual Vision mutation for the Abyss Eye, then returned to Silver Castle and met Zhong Xiaotong, who revealed she was his cousin. The chapter ended with Wang Dong stunned by the unexpected family connection.

• Wang Dong selected the gold-quality Spiritual Vision trait, which let the Abyss Eye continuously detect uninstalled Shipborne Modules within 10 light-minutes and show their bearings.
• Wang Dong tested the Abyss Eye with captured low-quality Sky Patrol Radars, but it did not devour them or improve its progress.
• Wang Dong kept meeting Lin Xiaogui online and later put Wang Guannan through an intensive Body Forging Technique workout at Silver Castle.
• The Viscount summoned Wang Dong to meet a guest, and Wang Dong encountered a refined young woman who called him Cousin.
• The woman introduced herself as Zhong Xiaotong, the illegitimate daughter of Zhong Shenxiu, and Wang Dong realized she could be his maternal cousin.

Wang Dong learned that Zhong Xiaotong was his cousin and that their mother was Zhong Poxiao, the sister of revolutionary leader Zhong Shenxiu. Though he distrusted most of Zhong Xiaotong’s account, the viscount verified her identity and the warning that the Golden Snapdragon Federation planned to move against the Eldest Princess, leaving Wang Dong to consider passing it on to her.

• Wang Dong learned that Zhong Xiaotong was his cousin and that their mother, Zhong Poxiao, was Zhong Shenxiu’s younger sister.
• Zhong Xiaotong told Wang Dong that the Federation planned to act against the Eldest Princess and asked him to pass the intelligence to her.
• Zhong Xiaotong explained that Zhong Poxiao missed Wang Dong but could not visit, then left the Viscountcy of Black Stone.
• Wang Dong told the viscount he believed only Zhong Xiaotong’s identity and the intelligence, dismissing most of her other claims.
• The viscount confirmed Zhong Xiaotong’s identity and her ties to the Civilization Party, and urged Wang Dong to discuss the warning with the Eldest Princess.

Wang Dong learned more about his mother, Zhong Poxiao, and tracked Zhong Xiaotong as she carried messages across the northern territories. After the Royal Fleet secured the Grand Duke's Territory of Beidi, Lin Xiaogui summoned Wang Dong and other royalist nobles to join a secret operation at North Wind Fortress.

• The viscount told Wang Dong that Zhong Poxiao was Zhong Shenxiu's younger sister, had been forced to return to the Zhong Family, and was now missing.
• Wang Dong secretly marked Zhong Xiaotong with a Tracking Beacon, upgraded the Star Hunter's Crown, and monitored her visits to northern aristocratic territories.
• Wang Dong entered the Otherworldly Space battlefield on June 22, found little, and confirmed that beacons from earlier battlefields still connected to the same universe.
• After the Royal Fleet finished securing the Grand Duke's Territory of Beidi, Lin Xiaogui summoned Wang Dong to assist with a secret operation.
• Wang Dong arrived at North Wind Fortress on July 5 and saw that other royalist northern nobles and Royal Fleet nobles had also been summoned to take part.

Lin Xiaogui led a fleet of one battleship and sixteen cruisers into the Weijing River to search for a special module under secret royal orders. With the Dark Peng’s new Abyss Eye helping it scout through the hazards, Wang Dong joined a banquet aboard the Goddess of Dawn as the expedition continued.

• Lin Xiaogui told the Northern nobles that the royal expedition would search the Weijing River for traces of a special module, and the fleet set out the next day.
• Wang Dong and the nobles discussed the exposure of a Golden Snapdragon Federation spy network at North Wind Fortress and its alleged plot to assassinate the Eldest Princess.
• The Dark Peng used its Orange Quality Abyss Eye to detect hazards far better than before, and Wu Baiyi guided it through the Weijing River as the fleet’s vanguard.
• Wang Dong cautioned Wu Baiyi to make the Dark Peng’s scouting look less effortless, and a Northern noble’s cruiser later took over the lead.
• Wang Dong traveled from the Dark Peng to the Goddess of Dawn by short-range space jump to attend a small banquet.

Wang Dong joined a banquet aboard the Goddess of Dawn, then the expedition pushed deeper into the Weijing River and faced increasingly frequent starbeast attacks. After the Dark Peng performed strongly in battle, Luo Changge challenged Wang Dong to a contest, but Wang Dong declined.

• Wang Dong used a space jump to board the Goddess of Dawn and attended a cordial banquet with Lin Xiaogui and the expedition's nobles and officers.
• Five days later, the expedition had entered deeper waters where level-three and stronger starbeasts attacked, forcing the ships to fight as they advanced.
• Wang Dong's newly equipped Dark Peng fought effectively, while the Goddess of Dawn anchored the expedition's defenses and several Royal Fleet cruisers rotated out to rest.
• Zhou Tai observed that the Northern nobles had more experience fighting starbeasts than fighting other humans.
• Luo Changge challenged Wang Dong to compare their ships' starbeast-killing contribution points, but Wang Dong declined because the contest would favor his experience and the expedition might soon be too busy.