Chapter Summaries

Zhu Ziwen and the explorers landed on Lost Star, where Lü Yongchang detected faint vibrations beneath the surface and ordered a deep survey. After Zhu Ziwen wandered toward something exposed in the landing zone, a gigantic serpent burst from the soil and lunged at him.

• Su Pengfei and Xia Zhou reflected on how Professor Lü and the Academy of Sciences had helped humanity survive.
• Lü Yongchang learned that probes had detected vibrations after the drones began clearing the landing site and ordered a ten-thousand-meter subsurface survey, prioritizing the North Pole.
• Zhu Ziwen landed on Lost Star and was awed by the immense disk filling the sky.
• Zhu Ziwen noticed a brown-black object in the soil and walked toward it despite Xia Zhou's warning to stay close.
• Su Pengfei shouted a warning as a giant serpent burst from the soil and lunged at Zhu Ziwen.

Zhu Ziwen recognized that the creature that attacked him on Lost Star was a tree root, not a snake, after Xia Zhou and Su Pengfei saved him. He reported the discovery to Lü Yongchang, warning that the planetary exploration mission might be more dangerous than they had expected.

• Zhu Ziwen studied the supposed giant serpent and realized it had no sensory organs or mouth, recalling Lü Yongchang's suspicion that artificial facilities lay beneath Lost Star.
• Su Pengfei and Xia Zhou warned Zhu Ziwen to get down, and the remotely controlled exoskeleton forced him into the dirt as a plasma cannon struck and severed the creature.
• Zhu Ziwen thanked Xia Zhou, who warned him not to investigate anything alone on the alien planet.
• Zhu Ziwen identified the creature as a tree root and urged Xia Zhou to suspend the exploration and hold position.
• Zhu Ziwen told Lü Yongchang that he had been attacked and described what happened, explaining that Xia Zhou had saved him.

Zhu Ziwen, Lü Yongchang, and Mao Zhengzhi suspected the giant trees on the Lost Star were conscious plants with a planet-wide communication network, possibly using quantum communication. As the North Pole subsurface model took shape, it revealed an orderly root network leading to a colossal root ten thousand meters underground, though Mao Zhengzhi sensed something was wrong.

• Zhu Ziwen told Lü Yongchang that the giant trees' roots attacked living beings and might be conscious, pointing to tremors detected simultaneously during the first landing operation.
• Mao Zhengzhi proposed that the giant trees communicated through interconnected roots and might possess a plant civilization capable of zero-latency quantum communication.
• Mao Zhengzhi warned Zhu Ziwen to tell Xia Zhou and the other explorers not to provoke the trees, while Zhu Ziwen wondered if they had already angered them.
• Lü Yongchang and Mao Zhengzhi examined a holographic model showing orderly roots connecting the smaller trees and extending deep underground.
• The model revealed that roots across the region fed into a hundred-meter-wide root ten thousand meters underground, and Mao Zhengzhi remarked that their distribution seemed strange.

After Zero modeled the Lost Star’s underground roots, Lü Yongchang suspected the planet’s trees and terrain were parts of one enormous living organism. He ordered the exploration team to abandon the surface and return to the starship immediately.

• Mao Zhengzhi asked Zero to extrapolate the Lost Star’s underground structure using the surveyed North Pole region as a template, and Lü Yongchang ordered Zero to proceed.
• Zero’s model showed the planet’s fine roots joining the massive root system beneath the ten-thousand-meter tree, which Mao Zhengzhi and Lü Yongchang recognized as resembling a nervous system.
• Lü Yongchang imagined the Lost Star as a giant organism whose body had become the planet’s terrain and whose trees formed its nervous system.
• Mao Zhengzhi shook Lü Yongchang from his vision, and Lü Yongchang ordered the exploration team to stop surveying and return to the starship at once.
• Mao Zhengzhi relayed the order, while Lü Yongchang warned that the surface was dangerous and said his instincts told him they were safer in space.

Lü Yongchang halted the exploration mission and ordered the team to return, leaving Zhu Ziwen to suspect that the planet concealed a grave danger. As the team rushed back to the Starship, radiation detectors revealed that Lost Giant Insects were approaching through the forest at night.

• Lü Yongchang warned Mao Zhengzhi that the exploration mission had been halted and said he hoped nothing would go wrong.
• Zhu Ziwen and Su Pengfei discussed the moving trees and compared the planet with the harsh Dawn Star X Region.
• Xia Zhou ordered Zhu Ziwen and the others to withdraw to the Starship after Command ceased all exploration missions.
• An alarm announced an incoming attack, and Xia Zhou identified the forest as the source rather than the underground Probe.
• Zhu Ziwen checked the radiation detector and saw dense clusters of Lost Giant Insects moving rapidly through the forest.

Zhu Ziwen stayed outside the Starship to observe the Exoskeleton Armor in combat as Lost Giant Insects swarmed the landing pad. He realized giant trees were driving the insects toward the explorers, then saw through the Radiation Imaging Function that the supposedly pill-bug-like creatures were actually giant house centipedes.

• Xia Zhou ordered the explorers to prepare for an attack and cover their teammates as they returned to the Starship.
• Zhu Ziwen insisted on observing the armor in combat, so Xia Zhou assigned Su Pengfei to protect him.
• As the explorers regrouped, the Lost Giant Insects grew restless and rushed toward the landing pad.
• Zhu Ziwen spotted tree roots herding the insects out of the forest and wondered if the giant trees kept them as livestock.
• The Radiation Imaging Function revealed the insects as giant house centipedes, shocking Zhu Ziwen.

Lü Yongchang and Mao Zhengzhi watched the giant tree drive a swarm of insects against the explorers and discovered Zhu Ziwen was still on the planet. After Zhu Ziwen ignored their warning to return to the Starship, Lü ordered reinforcements sent to protect him and prepare to destroy the tree if necessary.

• Lü Yongchang and Mao Zhengzhi saw the giant tree herd insects toward the exploration team and realized it was highly intelligent.
• Lü forced a communication connection with Zhu Ziwen, who complained that Zero’s Pill Bug simulation had actually depicted a giant house centipede.
• Lü urged Zhu Ziwen to return to the Starship, but Zhu Ziwen ended the call to keep recording research data.
• Mao Zhengzhi reassured Lü that the explorers could handle the tree, but Lü ordered more Carrier-Based Drones and ten [Golden Crow] ships to protect them.
• The ten [Golden Crow] battleships and Carrier-Based Drones broke away from the main force and headed toward the distant Lost Star.

The Wasteland Expedition fought off giant insects and attacking roots on the Lost Star as Xia Zhou ordered a nuclear strike to deter the intelligent giant tree. The first bomb detonated near the tree, leaving the battlefield silent after its shock wave swept through the forest.

• Xia Zhou ordered the expedition to use lasers and plasma cannons against the giant insects, while Zhu Ziwen realized he had left the Gauss Rifles without standard ammunition.
• Xia Zhou ordered the researchers to retreat to the Starship as insects crowded the battlefield, and Zhu Ziwen stopped recording data and headed for the ship.
• The giant tree attacked with underground roots, disrupting the expedition's defensive line and striking the Starship as Zhu Ziwen entered it.
• Xia Zhou sent Micro Drones carrying nuclear bombs toward three target zones, including one directly above the giant tree, to deter it from attacking.
• Xia Zhou ordered the first drone to drop its bomb, and the resulting blast and shock wave knocked down trees before the battlefield fell silent.

Xia Zhou’s team used miniature hydrogen bombs to drive back the giant trees’ attacking roots and escape aboard their Starships. The Probe recorded the roots mourning the felled trees as the drones withdrew.

• A Lost Giant Insect fled from the giant trees’ roots toward a bright clearing and was burned to death by the first miniature hydrogen bomb.
• After the blast, Xia Zhou recognized that the underground tremors came from the giant trees’ roots and ordered ten miniature hydrogen bombs dropped at the second drop zone.
• The second bombardment damaged the giant tree, and its attacking roots withdrew.
• Xia Zhou ordered the Micro Drones to descend to the third drop zone, and the giant trees pulled their roots underground as the insects scattered.
• Xia Zhou boarded a Starship, and the Starships took off while the Micro Drones withdrew.
• Roots emerged to caress the trees felled by the shock waves, and the Probe recorded the scene.

Lü Yongchang and Mao Zhengzhi devised experiments to grow new giant trees from tissue samples, hoping to study the intelligent organisms. The samples began changing under low-moisture conditions, leading them to suspect that Lost Star’s water had suppressed the trees’ growth and might explain why giant insects gathered near water.

• Lü Yongchang and Mao Zhengzhi discussed how humanity’s use of hydrogen bombs had likely made the giant trees wary of humans and made further research difficult.
• Mao Zhengzhi proposed growing a juvenile giant tree from tissue samples, and Lü Yongchang ordered experiments to test whether the samples could develop into organisms.
• Mao Zhengzhi designed protocols that varied radiation, moisture, temperature, and other conditions, and research robots began running the trials.
• Lü Yongchang and Mao Zhengzhi found that samples exposed to less moisture showed more pronounced changes.
• Lü Yongchang suggested that Lost Star might originally have had little water, and Mao Zhengzhi connected that possibility to the giant insects gathering near water.

An insect-like creature returned to the crater to feed and reflected on how a recent catastrophe had changed its world. On Earth, Lü Yongchang and Mao Zhengzhi’s experiments on the Lost Giant Tree stalled, while the black hole probe neared its target region without yet transmitting relevant data.

• An insect-like creature cautiously approached the crater, where it and other giant insects fed on the dormant roots.
• The creature recalled how a past catastrophe had brought vast bodies of water and how its kind judged ages of peace and crisis by the sky’s light.
• Lü Yongchang and Mao Zhengzhi determined that the Lost Giant Tree’s cell-like structures were totipotent but could not get them to differentiate into a complete tree.
• Lü Yongchang and Mao Zhengzhi found that changing radiation levels produced no significant differentiation or growth in the tissue.
• Lü Yongchang asked Zero about the black hole probe and learned that it was almost at the target region but had sent no relevant data.

Lü Yongchang and Mao Zhengzhi discovered that Lost Star’s giant trees had adapted to radiation from their former star, not the black hole’s accretion disk, but adjusting the radiation still did not produce roots. Lu Siyuan proposed increasing the radiation intensity tenfold, and Mao Zhengzhi let him try.

• Lü Yongchang realized that the difference in radiation composition between Lost Star’s former star and the black hole’s accretion disk explained the giant trees’ survival.
• Lü Yongchang, He Bilin, and others used the remaining stellar debris to determine that Lost Star’s primary star emitted intense radiation, mostly gamma rays.
• Mao Zhengzhi found that giant tree tissue grew under adjusted radiation but still could not develop roots.
• Lu Siyuan proposed raising the radiation intensity tenfold, and Mao Zhengzhi authorized him to test the idea.

Mao Zhengzhi explained to Lü Yongchang how communal child-rearing and genetic screening had accelerated the New Humans’ development while replacing natural births and weakening traditional family ties. They concluded that humanity had changed so much after leaving Earth that it could no longer be called human.

• Lü Yongchang examined Lu Siyuan’s record, and Mao Zhengzhi named him a promising biological talent to cultivate.
• Mao Zhengzhi credited Zero’s genetic screening and communal education with accelerating human evolution and said New Humans were increasingly replacing naturally born people.
• Mao Zhengzhi told Lü Yongchang that communal child-rearing was expected to replace the original reproductive system within about two hundred years, despite its effects on traditional family life.
• Lü Yongchang and Mao Zhengzhi reflected that humanity had changed irreversibly since leaving Earth and could no longer be called human.

A high-radiation experiment successfully activated growth in a piece of Lost Star’s giant tree, but the results conflicted with calculations of the planet’s former star. Lü Yongchang and He Bilin were left questioning how the tree had survived radiation ten times the standard level.

• Lu Siyuan’s experiment exposed a giant-tree specimen to radiation ten times the standard level, and the tissue began to grow roots and leaves.
• Mao Zhengzhi questioned Lu Siyuan about the unusually high radiation dose, and Lu Siyuan explained that he suspected earlier stimuli had been too weak.
• Lü Yongchang called He Bilin over to examine the experiment’s radiation data.
• He Bilin checked the calculations with Zero and confirmed there were no errors, despite the results suggesting radiation far stronger than Lost Star’s former star could have produced.

Lü Yongchang explained that the Lost Star’s star was a flare star, accounting for the giant trees’ changing growth and radiation levels. After footage showed a giant tree luring in and capturing a giant insect, the researchers concluded that the trees farmed the insects and hunted them when resources dwindled, then prepared to decipher the seedling.

• He Bilin and the other researchers struggled to explain why their calculated data differed so greatly from their observations, and Lü Yongchang suggested the star might be a flare star.
• He Bilin recognized that Ross 154 had been a flare star, and Lü Yongchang explained how flare activity could drive the giant trees’ cycles of rapid growth and reduced activity.
• Mao Zhengzhi showed footage of a giant insect eating a radioactive lure before a giant tree’s roots dragged it underground.
• Mao Zhengzhi concluded that the giant trees raised giant insects during times of plenty and hunted them more often during lean periods.
• Lü Yongchang ordered the team to begin deciphering the seedling once it grew larger and asked Zero to summon Meng Lu.

Meng Lu began investigating whether the intelligent giant trees from the Lost Star communicated through bioelectric signals transmitted by their roots. After electrodes were implanted in a laboratory sapling, she detected fluctuating bioelectric currents but had not yet determined what they meant.

• Lü Yongchang showed Meng Lu the fragile sapling and asked her to study it as the research subject.
• Mao Zhengzhi explained that the sapling was a plant form of highly intelligent life discovered on a planet.
• Meng Lu agreed to try deciphering the trees' communication despite uncertainty about whether a single organism needed a language system.
• Meng Lu hypothesized that the trees used bioelectric currents and had Scientific Research Robots implant tiny electrodes in the sapling's roots.
• Meng Lu observed fluctuating curves on the Holographic Image and confirmed that the sapling had bioelectric currents.

Meng Lu analyzed the giant sapling’s bioelectric signals but found no useful patterns, then examined the anatomy of its roots with Mao Zhengzhi and Lü Yongchang. Lü rejected the idea that the roots coordinated through bioelectric currents and suggested the trees might use a form of quantum superluminal communication.

• Meng Lu asked Zero to record and compare the sapling’s bioelectric signals, but found that over 99% repeated while the rest appeared chaotic.
• Meng Lu decided to study the roots’ physiological structure and asked Mao Zhengzhi to show her an anatomical model.
• Mao Zhengzhi explained that the model came from a damaged dead root and that researchers were cultivating three more giant trees for study.
• Meng Lu told Mao Zhengzhi that she had detected strong bioelectric signals in the sapling’s roots but found no meaningful patterns.
• Mao Zhengzhi asked Zero to summon Lü Yongchang, who examined the data and argued that bioelectric signals were too slow to coordinate all the trees’ roots at once.
• Lü Yongchang recalled that the researchers had suspected the giant trees used a form of quantum superluminal communication.

Lü Yongchang discovered that the Giant Trees’ bioelectric signals controlled a structure resembling the core of a quantum communication device, suggesting they could transmit signals through quantum effects. He and Mao Zhengzhi considered whether the Giant Trees’ consciousness might offer a model for studying human consciousness, but Lü Yongchang prioritized deciphering their language and summoned Mo Zeyang’s team.

• Lü Yongchang used Zero to model bioelectric signals in a root and noticed they formed a mesh-like structure with a spherical cavity.
• Lü Yongchang retrieved an old schematic for the first-generation Quantum Superluminal Communication Device and simplified it to compare its core with the root’s structure.
• Mao Zhengzhi proposed that the Giant Trees used quantum signals and might possess quantum consciousness, potentially making them a model for studying human consciousness.
• Lü Yongchang set aside consciousness research and told Zero to summon Mo Zeyang and his team to help decipher the Giant Trees’ language system.

Meng Lu and Mo Zeyang investigated quantum-like signals in a giant tree’s roots and began intercepting them, while Lü Yongchang received data from a black hole probe and prepared to search for gravitons. The chapter left both research efforts poised for further breakthroughs.

• Mo Zeyang examined the holographic models and recognized that the giant tree’s roots had a mechanism resembling quantum superluminal communication.
• Lü Yongchang assigned Mo Zeyang to help Meng Lu decipher the giant trees’ language or establish a communication channel.
• Meng Lu worried that the signals could not be intercepted, but Mo Zeyang argued that the sapling itself gave them access to the system’s main unit.
• Mo Zeyang began the Signal Interception Experiment, and the probe needles revealed increasingly strong, rhythmic signals that gave Meng Lu a promising path toward deciphering them.
• Lü Yongchang received data showing that the black hole probe had reached its designated region and began assessing whether conditions were suitable to search for gravitons.

After five years of observing the black hole, Lü Yongchang and the researchers had found no gravitons, and he worried that the fleet could not wait long enough for the probe to succeed. He concluded that the probe needed to descend farther because the spacetime curvature around it remained insufficient.

• The Human Federation fleet repeatedly sent probes to Lost Star, where the giant trees and Lost Giant Insects gathered around the radiation they released.
• Lü Yongchang complained that five years of observation had revealed no gravitons, while the fleet's energy supplies and five-hundred-year limit made further waiting risky.
• Fang Xu and He Bilin warned that deeper descent could leave the probe unable to escape the black hole and would greatly increase the time needed to receive data.
• Lü Yongchang reviewed deviations in the probe's readings and recalculated the conditions for gravitons to appear.
• Lü Yongchang concluded that the probe's current region lacked enough spacetime curvature and ordered it to keep descending.