Chapter Summaries

Zhang Fan sent the Progenitors to investigate Aisalanth, a magic-wielding humanoid world, and learned that its inhabitants could help the Insect Race develop resistance to mental power. After Zhang Fan rode down to the planet, the Redfire King offered a huge reward for capturing the strange insect he saw, sending mercenaries north in pursuit.

• Zhang Fan befriended the Two-Headed Wolf and promised to help it kill Domina.
• Shusha showed Zhang Fan images of Aisalanth, where humanoids used magic and some had powerful mental abilities.
• The Matriarch reported that the Two-Headed Wolf's genes had produced a fire-and-ice-breathing Two-Tailed Scorpion that resisted control by Insect Shapers.
• Zhang Fan ordered the Progenitors to collect genes on Aisalanth before a full invasion, then rode a Super Six-Eye down to the planet.
• The Sacred Dragon Mage warned the Redfire King that a force from another realm was approaching, and an imperial guard reported seeing a monstrous insect in the sky.
• The Redfire King offered rewards for capturing the flying insect, prompting mercenaries across Aisalanth to head north.

Zhang Fan learned how to resist Mental Power from an old man in a cave and began invading Aisalanth, intending to take half its people. As the Insect Race devastated the continent, humans and other races united to resist, and Charm Spider led a new assault on their defenders.

• Zhang Fan visited a cave to learn mental strength from the planet’s strongest person, agreeing to leave half of Aisalanth’s people alive in exchange.
• When Zhang Fan’s consciousness disappeared, Shusha sent Ghost Bugs to search for him, then prepared the Insect Race to invade; Zhang Fan reappeared and ordered the invasion to target people with magical abilities.
• Zhang Fan confronted Ku mercenaries and mages outside the cave, killed several saint mages, and left after the old man warned them that the black moon was coming.
• The Insect Race invaded Aisalanth, taking a third of the continent in two days, while the Redfire King welcomed envoys from the elves, dwarves, orcs, and Half-Giants, who offered to fight alongside humanity.
• Zhang Fan told Shusha that the Insect Race had nearly taken half the population and ordered it to finish at a castle before moving to another planet; he let Charm Spider lead the assault.
• Charm Spider’s forces surged toward the castle, where Ye Lan and the allied defenders prepared their dragons, archers, shields, siege weapons, and mages for battle.

Charm Spider’s Insect Race army breached the Half-Giants’ defenses and used Teleportation Bugs to send Cheetahs into the fortress, forcing Aisalanth’s allied forces to prepare a second line. As a powerful mage and an unknown force approached, Zhang Fan sent Lightning to kill the mage and warned an old man not to break his word.

• Charm Spider directed the Insect Race’s artillery against the Half-Giants’ magical barriers while Gerard sent Shadow Guard assassins and Darkmoon Elves after her; she killed the attackers with her Demon Ape bodyguards.
• The Insect Race repeatedly blasted the same point in the Half-Giants’ wall, then used Teleportation Bugs to send tens of thousands of Cheetahs into the breach, where Dwarven warriors and Half-Giants fought to contain them.
• Explosive Bugs and Broodmine Explosive Bugs ambushed Half-Giants who tried to destroy the Teleportation Bugs, and Gerard ordered the allied forces to retreat behind a second defensive line.
• A powerful mage gathered electrical energy beneath a forming thundercloud, and Zhang Fan sent Lightning to kill her after Shusha reported the mana surge.
• Shusha warned Zhang Fan that a small but powerful army was approaching, while Gerard recognized the mage as Thunder Mother Doralival and the elven general spotted multicolored dots in the northern sky.
• Zhang Fan frowned at the approaching force and warned an old man not to break his word.

The Insect Race overwhelmed Aisalanth after Zhang Fan ordered an all-out attack, and its forces defeated the dragons and defenders. Zhang Fan confronted the captured Dragon God Orlana over the dragons’ broken promise, and Orlana was left confused when Zhang Fan asked why the dragons had not protected Earth from the Qiya.

• The Dragon God Orlana appeared beside Gerard, revealed his identity, and ordered the civilians to evacuate as the dragons’ brief advantage faded.
• Zhang Fan voided his agreement to spare half of Aisalanth’s population, and Shusha deployed the Insect Race’s forces while Blast Bees brought down dragons.
• Lightning absorbed Doralival’s magic and knocked her toward the castle, while crimson gas drove the Insect Race’s flying forces into a frenzy.
• Hao Lan led the human Heavy Cavalry through the insect tide, but tens of thousands of cavalrymen were soon swallowed by the Insect Race.
• The Insect Race brought the weakened Orlana to Zhang Fan, who accused him of breaking their agreement and asked why the dragons had not protected Earth from the Qiya.

Zhang Fan halted the Insect Race’s assault on Aisalanth in exchange for Orlana’s account of Azure Dragon Star, Earth, and humanity’s mysterious origins. He learned that Orlana did not know Earth’s location, then claimed half of Aisalanth despite the ceasefire.

• Orlana told Zhang Fan that he had stopped the attack because the Starry Sky Dragon forbade Aisalanth’s destruction, and offered information about Azure Dragon Star in exchange for a ceasefire.
• Zhang Fan agreed to halt the assault, and Lightning informed Aisalanth’s defenders that the Insect Race would withdraw if they did not attack it.
• Orlana explained that Azure Dragon Star was Earth, the Dragon Race’s birthplace, and that the dragons had sealed it away before humans appeared there.
• Orlana said the Dragon Race did not know humanity’s origins, believed Earthlings and Aisalanth’s humans belonged to the same widespread population, and could not identify Earth’s location.
• Orlana revealed that Dilama, a Primordial Dragon, slept in the Dragon Abyss, but Zhang Fan refused to be provoked into seeking him out.
• Zhang Fan announced that the Insect Race would take half of Aisalanth, and Orlana accused him of breaking his word.

After the Insect Race claimed territory on Aisalanth, Zhang Fan prepared to face the approaching dragons while the planet’s leaders learned their promised reinforcements would not come. Minerva appeared before Zhang Fan and demanded that he defeat the Western Realm Great Emperor and free Dimayadis in exchange for information about Earth.

• Zhang Fan marked the Insect Race’s boundary with a trench and warned Orlana that any attack across it would mean war.
• Zhang Fan ordered the Insect Race to invade nearby star systems, develop stronger weapons, and investigate Aisalanth as the dragons assembled.
• At the Flame Palace, Minerva told Orlana that Lord Dilama had disbanded the dragon army, but agreed to help him one last time.
• Minerva appeared aboard the {Broodmother}, overpowered Zhang Fan’s forces with her draconic aura, and told him that Earth was also the dragons’ birthplace.
• Minerva offered to reveal Earth’s location if Zhang Fan defeated the Western Realm Great Emperor and freed the Western Realm’s Judgment Dragon King, Dimayadis.

Zhang Fan negotiated with Minerva, then led the Insect Race from Aisalanth toward Orland Star while rapidly expanding his army. As his forces attacked a Lizard Beastmen city, a mysterious fleshy sphere containing a city appeared overhead.

• Zhang Fan refused Minerva's demand to free Dimayadis unless the Dragon Race protected the Qiya People until his revenge and revealed Earth's location and safeguarded the Solar System after Dimayadis was rescued.
• Minerva directed Zhang Fan to seek guidance on Orland Star and agreed that the Dragon Race would support him if he went to war with Domina.
• Zhang Fan ordered the Insect Race to leave Aisalanth and head for Orland Star, while Redfire King wondered what future the weak Aisalanth could have.
• Zhang Fan's army devastated inhabited planets along its route and grew over a hundred years to 150,000 Emperors and tens of billions of troops.
• Zhang Fan inspected the newly bred Giant Fortress Bug as it attacked a Lizard Beastmen city, then saw an enormous fleshy sphere descend from the sky.
• Shusha reported that Ghost Bugs had found a city inside the sphere, which had appeared with a powerful magnetic field and a possible Portal device.

Zhang Fan accepted the Locarno’s offer to settle on the Lizard Beastmen’s planet in exchange for technology, ship refits, and a century of Insect Race protection. The Locarno revived the devastated planet and helped the Insect Race begin evolving, but Luo Yun feared the process would take too long.

• Luo Li introduced the Locarno as interstellar refugees and offered technology in exchange for the planet and a hundred years of protection.
• Zhang Fan accepted the deal, and the Insect Race wiped out all life on the planet before the Locarno transformed their mothership into a city and restored the ecosystem.
• Luo Yun explained that reviving the planet had required a thousand years of stored psychic energy, while Locarno workers installed Psychic Energy Collectors across it.
• Zhang Fan watched the Insect Race begin evolving with the Locarno’s help, and Shusha reported that only fifteen percent of the process was complete.
• Luo Yun warned that the remaining thirty years needed for the evolution might be too long for the coming crisis.

Zhang Fan learned that Locarno had drawn the hostile Halley Legion after obtaining an object from the Vitter Universe and killing one of its leaders. As the Legion arrived, Luo Yun revealed that Locarno possessed part of the Reaper Scythe, a staff said to revive the dead and grant eternal life.

• Luo Yun told Zhang Fan that a fleet had pursued Locarno, and Zhang Fan ordered the Ghost Bugs to watch them, the Matriarchs to accelerate psionic research, and a fleet to contact the pursuers.
• Locarno's psionic technology helped the Insect Race complete its evolution, develop stronger ground and aerial forces, and establish a space fleet and planetary defenses.
• Zhang Fan asked Luo Yun to make Locarno an ally, but she refused, saying Locarno wanted a peaceful life and lacked the strength and desire to join further wars.
• Zhang Fan told Luo Yun that the Insect Race had found the hostile fleet, and Luo Yun identified it as the Halley Legion, the largest interstellar pirate group in the Western Universe.
• Luo Yun explained that Locarno had obtained an object from the Vitter Universe and killed a Halley Legion leader, then revealed that the object was part of the Reaper Scythe, a staff said to revive the dead and grant eternal life.
• Luo Yun's third eye flashed, and she told Zhang Fan that the Halley Legion had arrived.

Mina confronted the Halley Legion and forced its pirates to retreat, but Lambert ordered covert raids on Insect Race shipping. Zhang Fan left Dachuwa with the Spirit Source and contacted Nexis, then set course for Orland.

• Mina warned Lambert that the Insect Race protected the Locarno for another eighty-two years, and he withdrew after learning the Insect Race’s strength.
• Lambert ordered the Halley Legion to raid Insect Race-connected systems and merchant ships, and pirates soon attacked transport ships from the Brocade Galaxy.
• Luo Yun gave Zhang Fan the Spirit Source necklace and thanked him for protecting the Locarno; Zhang Fan left Dachuwa with his fleet.
• Zhang Fan contacted Nexis, told her to accommodate Domina while protecting Second Earth, and ordered her to guard shipping routes against pirates.
• Zhang Fan told Nexis he was heading for the Northern Universe border, then ordered Shusha to set course for Orland.

Mude’s patrol ship and the Kade Thirty-Second Defense Star were overwhelmed by Zhang Fan’s Insect Race army as it advanced into Northern Universe territory. After identifying an approaching fleet that included an S-class warship, Zhang Fan turned his forces toward it to test the {Spirit Dragon Brood Bug}.

• Mude’s patrol ship was ambushed by the Insect Race, and the Kade Knights rescued its crew before their own warships came under attack.
• Aboard the {Spirit Dragon Brood Bug}, Zhang Fan and Shusha let Mude’s patrol ship escape and continued toward Orland Star through Northern Universe territory.
• Mude reached the Thirty-Second Defense Star, but the Insect Race vanguard destroyed its space fortress and forced commander Gate to order a retreat.
• Shusha spotted a larger fleet approaching with an S-class warship, and Zhang Fan turned the three hundred thousand Insect Race ships toward it to test the {Spirit Dragon Brood Bug}.

Zhang Fan’s Insect Race army defeated the Kade knight orders in their first battle in the Northern Realm, forcing them to abandon the colony planets Dorne and Dolly. Kade’s leaders recalled their forces and prepared for war while sending an envoy to explore peace talks.

• Commander Xulanos’s Second Knight Order retreated between two defense planets, where Kade’s lasers destroyed many Insect Race warships and damaged the {Spirit Dragon Brood Bug}.
• The Kade Third and Eighth Knight Orders arrived, but they could not stop Zhang Fan’s army, and Bishop Luteer ordered Xulanos to retreat and abandon the colony planets.
• Zhang Fan and Shusha made the abandoned planets into forward bases, where the Insect Race devoured tens of billions of inhabitants and began hatching troops.
• Kade’s ministers argued over whether to fight, retreat, seek aid, or negotiate as the United Alliance debated its response.
• The bishop ordered all knight orders recalled, sent an envoy to explore peace talks, and placed Kade on constant battle readiness.

The Insect Race attacked Kade’s colonies, while Kade Star ignored repeated pleas for help. Dona Star sent its forces to support Doro Star, but Deli had secretly agreed to betray Charlie’s defenders in exchange for sparing Dona Star.

• The Insect Race landed hidden eggs on Kade Star, destroyed a Kade peace delegation, and began attacking the colonies one by one.
• After Kade Star ignored distress calls from Domo and Doko, Zhang Fan ordered the Insect Race to attack more colonies to draw out Kade forces.
• Charlie persuaded Deli to send Dona Star’s ships and soldiers to defend Doro Star, and Deli finally agreed after Kade Star failed to respond.
• Charm Spider led the Insect Race assault on Doro Star, driving Charlie’s forces back to their underground fortress.
• Dona Star’s reinforcements arrived with missiles, then turned back and retreated as Charm Spider revealed that Deli had traded Doro Star’s defenders for Dona Star’s safety.

The Insect Race used Doro Star and Dona Star’s survivors to turn the colonial planets against Kade Star, while Zhang Fan planned to exploit the resulting standoff. As the colonial fleet surrounded Kade Star, Charlie confronted the Prince of Kade over the Knights’ refusal to defend them.

• Charlie accepted Charm Spider’s offer to spare Doro Star’s people, and its soldiers surrendered despite his initial resistance.
• Charm Spider led Doro Star’s forces to Dona Star, where the Insect Race destroyed its military while Charlie asked that the civilians be spared.
• Zhang Fan told Lightning that sparing survivors would break the colonies’ faith in Kade Star and make them oppose it.
• Charlie urged colonial planets to surrender and rebel against Kade Star, and their fleets gathered around the planet.
• The Prince of Kade flew between the opposing fleets and called the rebellion an Insect Race scheme, but Charlie condemned Kade Star for abandoning the colonies.

Zhang Fan's Insect Race defeated the Kade forces and installed Charlie as administrator of Kade and its colonies. When Charlie tried to assassinate Zhang Fan during the inauguration, Zhang Fan survived and had millions of civilians slaughtered in retaliation, leaving Charlie imprisoned and pleading for mercy.

• Zhang Fan ordered the attack on Kade's forces, and the Insect Race destroyed the six S-Class Dreadnoughts as fighting spread across the sector.
• The Insect Race conquered Kade Star, and Charm Spider told Charlie he would administer Kade and its surrounding colony stars under Zhang Fan's rule.
• At the inauguration, Charlie presented Zhang Fan with the Sword of Kade and detonated an explosive in an attempt to kill him.
• Zhang Fan escaped the blast with Charlie, imprisoned him in an energy barrier, and ordered the Insect Race to slaughter millions of civilians.
• Charlie begged Zhang Fan to kill him instead and spare the civilians, but Zhang Fan blamed him and threatened the rest of the Kade.

After a mental ambush left Zhang Fan shaken, he traveled to White Dragon Star to obtain protection and rest. He received a Dragon Crystal and fell asleep beneath a tree, where a Dragon Race princess found him surprisingly peaceful.

• Zhang Fan ordered the Insect Race to establish Kade Star and the surrounding colonies as a forward base, while Shusha reported that they were breeding fusion-powered units.
• A mysterious mental attack nearly overwhelmed Zhang Fan, but the Spirit Source Luo Yun had given him glowed and helped him recognize the intrusion.
• Shusha deployed {Progenitor Brain Bugs} to shield Zhang Fan, and he decided to seek help resisting further mental attacks.
• Zhang Fan traveled to White Dragon Star, where Jieduona gave him a Dragon Crystal that could block mental intrusion.
• Zhang Fan rested under a tree in a Dragon Race palace garden as two guards watched him, and a princess arrived and wondered at his peaceful appearance.

After a transformation gave Zhang Fan control over his mental power and psionic energy, he stayed on White Dragon Star for the Dragon Ball Match and Hanquan’s daughter’s husband-selection ceremony. He arrived at the arena and agreed to assess the four candidates, while Princess Su Ya objected to his involvement.

• Princess Su Ya poked and kicked the sleeping Zhang Fan, triggering a transformation that made his carapace wither.
• After seven days, Zhang Fan emerged with a black carapace, antennae, control over his mental power, and psionic energy; Hanquan explained that the Locarno's Spirit Source and Dragon Race's Dragon Crystal had triggered it.
• Hanquan invited Zhang Fan to stay for his daughter’s husband-selection ceremony, and Zhang Fan learned the rules of the Dragon Ball Match.
• The next morning, Su Ya greeted Zhang Fan rudely and revealed that she had kicked him while he slept.
• Hanquan asked Zhang Fan to assess four Dragon Race candidates competing in the match, and Zhang Fan resolved to help Su Ya find a good husband.

Zhang Fan watched Prince Blaze defeat Prince Mudesha in the Dragon Ball Match and angered Princess Su Ya by praising Blaze as her ideal husband. After Blaze won, Shusha told Zhang Fan that a {Ghost Bug} had found an Extreme Cold Planet with a strange life force beneath an ice layer.

• Mudesha and Blaze entered the arena with their dragon warriors, and Zhang Fan worried that the Dragon Race's aura could overwhelm his troops in a war.
• The Dragon Ball Match began, and Blaze scored points through a series of plays while the commentator excitedly narrated the action.
• Hanquan favored Blaze as a match for Su Ya, and Zhang Fan praised the prince, provoking Su Ya into attacking him with dragon breath and freezing a guard.
• Hanquan rebuked Su Ya, and Blaze won the first match by twenty to zero.
• As Hanquan introduced Blaze to Zhang Fan, Shusha telepathically reported that a {Ghost Bug} had detected life beneath three hundred kilometers of ice on an Extreme Cold Planet.

Zhang Fan left the Dragon Race after encouraging Prince Blaze’s marriage to Princess Su Ya, then investigated a colossal life-form beneath an ice planet. His troops drew blood and collected the creature’s genes, but the wounded being began to writhe inside the ice.

• Zhang Fan declined to attend Prince Blaze’s wedding and urged Hanquan to skip the remaining matches and choose Blaze as the winner.
• Shusha reported that an immense life-form beneath an Extreme Cold Planet possessed extraordinary psionic energy, while the Two-Headed Wolf warned Zhang Fan not to disturb it.
• Zhang Fan ordered Primordial Spirit Emperor Bugs to blast through the ice and sent Progenitors and Parasitic Ticks to extract the creature’s genes, with orders to evacuate if danger arose.
• Shusha directed the cold-stricken survivors to roll deeper through the tunnel, and fewer than a thousand Progenitors and Parasitic Ticks reached the creature’s skin.
• When the bugs could not pierce the creature’s tough skin, Zhang Fan ordered the Primordial Spirit Emperor Bugs to fire at it, and the blast made the creature bleed and writhe.
• The Progenitors and Parasitic Ticks swarmed the blood, and Shusha announced that they had collected the creature’s genetic sequence.

Zhang Fan discovered that the living planet had absorbed the Insect Race Overlord consciousness and might hatch as a cosmic-scale Insect Race member, while his army continued toward Orland Star. At the Northern Realm Interstellar Council, Domina deflected accusations about the invading fleet by revealing that Prince Dimis was alive and challenging the Dragon Race to prove the fleet was not theirs.

• Shusha told Zhang Fan that the living planet had rapidly healed and devoured the Progenitor's genes, and Zhang Fan linked with it and realized it was an egg that had absorbed the Overlord consciousness.
• Zhang Fan established a small Insect Race observation station near the living planet and continued leading his army toward Orland Star.
• At the Interstellar Council, Domina questioned reports of an Insect Race invasion, and Kela argued that the fleet's advanced warships looked more like Dragon Race technology than Western Universe Insect Race vessels.
• Ambassador Zhiren accused the Krami People of colluding with the Insect Race and framing the Dragon Race, while Domina challenged his claims and asked how Prince Dimis had died.
• Domina revealed that Prince Dimis was alive, then demanded that Zhiren prove the invading army did not belong to the Dragon Race.