Chapter Summaries

An old Enroget scientist recalled the civilization’s 1,300-year-old encounter with an advanced craft and secretly contacted it as the Enroget flagship fell to attack. After they initiated the flagship’s self-destruct, the Command Center’s reaction and the screen’s image left them stunned.

• The old scientist remembered how the Enroget Civilization had rejected an offer to become a vassal of a level eight civilization, whose craft later vanished toward a distant region of the Milky Way.
• As War Robot Array units breached the flagship’s defenses, the old scientist retrieved and memorized the ancient craft’s communication details, then deleted the secret file.
• The old scientist used the Homeworld’s Tachyon Communication Device to repeatedly send a message offering to make the Enroget Civilization a vassal.
• The old scientist pressed the flagship’s self-destruct button, but the Command Center officers began murmuring instead of reacting as expected.
• The old scientist opened their eyes, saw the screen, and asked what was going on.

Humanity used nano-infiltration devices to seize control of the Enrojet flagship and fleet, stopping a secret transmission before it could be sent. After Zero reported a potential threat alert, Lü Yongchang asked what message had been blocked and who it was meant for.

• Human war robots fired nano-infiltration devices that seeped into the Enrojet flagship and reached its tachyon communication equipment.
• Humanity's war machines bypassed the flagship's defenses, and the old Enrojet scientist realized the Central Computer had been infiltrated.
• The transmission was forcibly halted, the top-secret file disappeared, and Enrojet warships joined the Human fleet as the old scientist died unnoticed.
• Zero reported that it had seized control of the Central Computer, then raised an alert for an unknown type I potential threat.
• Zero confirmed that the transmission had been halted before any message was sent, and Lü Yongchang asked what the message was and who it was for.

Lü Yongchang struggled to uncover the meaning of a secret message, prompting Bai Yixuan to force the Enroget Civilization and its alliance into submission. After learning that the message's sender was dead, Lü discovered an advanced civilization's ruins near a neutron star and ordered an expedition to Earth.

• Zero could not decrypt the message and reported that the Enroget had deleted a likely relevant top-secret file, so Lü Yongchang ordered Bai Yixuan to land and interrogate the Command Center.
• Bai Yixuan brought the Human Fleet down over the Enroget homeworld, and the threat of its cannons forced the civilization to surrender within days.
• Human forces maintained order across the Enrojet Alliance, applied Thought Imprints, began interrogations, and escorted the spatial-weapon flagship toward the Kepler-452 Stellar System.
• Lü Yongchang learned that the Enrojet who sent the message had died of old age and ordered interrogations expanded to senior officials across the alliance.
• Zero revealed database information about enormous ruins left by an unknown advanced civilization, and Lü Yongchang identified their location near a neutron star in Enrojet Alliance territory.
• Lü Yongchang ordered the expedition to set sail for Earth.

The research fleet headed toward a neutron star while Lü Yongchang examined the ruins of an advanced civilization and concluded their enormous structure was likely hollow. The possibility that the civilization had built a shell around a gas giant—and that the giant was its homeworld—left Fang Xu stunned.

• At Lü Yongchang's command, the [Earth] and its accompanying fleet departed Kepler-452b and traveled toward a neutron star 627 light-years away.
• Lü Yongchang told Fang Xu that the ruins were too large for their relatively low mass to make sense as a solid planetary fortress.
• Fang Xu suggested the structure might be made from an unknown material, but Lü Yongchang proposed that it was hollow instead.
• Lü Yongchang explained that the ruins might be a shell built around a gas giant, and Fang Xu considered the idea plausible.
• Lü Yongchang speculated that the gas giant might have been the advanced civilization's homeworld, leaving Fang Xu speechless.

In 3750, the Human Fleet reached the Ruins, an enormous artificial structure built around a neutron star, and sent unmanned experimental ships inside. After the Ruins scanned them, it sent a message written in the grand unified theory, leaving Lü Yongchang to consider what it meant.

• The Human Fleet arrived near the neutron star and approached the planet-sized Ruins.
• Zero located a fifty-thousand-kilometer fissure, and dozens of unmanned experimental ships headed inside.
• An orange-yellow light welcomed the ships and a traction field drew them deeper into the fissure.
• The ships traveled more than three thousand kilometers to a gate into the Outer Ruins Region and landed under roughly 5 g of lateral gravity.
• The gate scanned the ships and sent a message with a dictionary and translation program.
• Lü Yongchang recognized the equations in the message as the grand unified theory.

Lü Yongchang solved the grand unified theory puzzle and opened the ruins, then investigated the mist-filled interior and discovered that its structure used strong interaction material. The research robots exploring deeper in the Outer Ruins Region sent back good news, but its details were not revealed.

• Lü Yongchang completed the projected formulas, and Zero transmitted his answer to the enormous wall.
• The wall opened, and Lü Yongchang sent research robots into the mist-filled space aboard a planetary lander.
• The robots analyzed the mist, and Lü Yongchang suspected the ruins might resemble the interior of an ice giant.
• Tao Yuda identified the ruins' protective layer as strong interaction material like that used in the Cleaners Civilization's probe.
• The research robots exploring the Outer Ruins Region sent back good news.

Lü Yongchang and the researchers discovered that the supposed spatial weapons in the ruins were factory-made cutting devices, and most of the devices were damaged. They found a door leading to the Tenth Empire’s strong interaction material manufacturing area, leaving Human Civilization poised to explore an even more valuable section of the ruins.

• Research robots failed to sample the neutron membrane and found an intact device resembling the Enroget Civilization’s spatial weapon inside the ruins.
• Micro drones revealed more than a hundred identical devices and transport machinery arranged like a factory assembly line.
• The researchers learned that the devices were spatial rift cutting devices, with only about seventy intact, and Lü Yongchang ordered robots to dismantle and retrieve them all.
• Lü Yongchang asked Zero to find usable data interfaces, but Zero reported that the interfaces and cables found so far had all been severed.
• Micro drones located a towering door, and Zero translated its inscription as “Tenth Empire” and “Strong interaction material manufacturing area.”

The humans contacted the gate of the Tenth Empire’s ruins and answered a test about grand unified field technology, which Lü Yongchang believed was meant to identify civilizations nearing level six. The fortress mainframe introduced itself as Ten, mistook the humans for a silicon-based civilization, and asked their name, so Lü Yongchang replied, “Enroget Civilization.”

• Lü Yongchang ruled out war as the cause of the Tenth Empire’s abandonment and ordered the fleet to withdraw 0.1 light-years while research robots contacted the gate.
• The gate presented a test about manipulating gravity and electromagnetic interactions, and Lü Yongchang supplied the answer.
• Lü Yongchang guessed that the Tenth Empire was screening for civilizations capable of reaching level six and predicted later tests might involve spacetime.
• The gate identified itself as the Tenth Empire’s homeworld fortress and its central control mainframe, Ten.
• Ten mistook the humans for a level five silicon-based civilization and asked their name, and Lü Yongchang answered, “Enroget Civilization.”

Lü Yongchang guided the robots through the Tenth Empire fortress, where the artificial intelligence mistook them for silicon-based Enroget life and granted them access after they passed a spacetime assessment. The chapter ended with the fortress welcoming the visitors to the Tenth Empire Homeworld Fortress.

• Lü Yongchang learned that [Ten] was an artificial intelligence created by the silicon-based individuals of the Tenth Empire, and the robots passed the second-stage assessment.
• Lü Yongchang and Fang Xu explored the Strong Interaction Material Manufacturing Area and found it stripped of equipment, leaving only empty shells.
• [Ten] presented Lü Yongchang with a complicated spacetime assessment, which he solved using knowledge gained during the war with the [Enroget Civilization].
• [Ten] declared that the level five Enroget Civilization had passed all assessments and granted visitor access to the Tenth Empire Homeworld Fortress.

After the Research Robot entered the ruins, [Ten] revealed that the Tenth Empire had left the Milky Way for Andromeda as a peak level seven civilization. Lü Yongchang learned that the Empire had predicted the supernova and built the Planetary Fortress to protect its Homeworld, which survived the blast.

• The Research Robot followed enormous rippling directional markers through the ruins while Micro Drones mapped the mostly empty areas.
• [Ten] explained that the Empire had removed its valuable items before leaving because the Milky Way Galaxy was too small.
• [Ten] revealed that the Empire was a peak level seven civilization when the Homeworld Fortress lost contact with it one hundred thousand years ago.
• [Ten] said the Empire established its expedition plan two hundred and fifty thousand years ago and departed for the Andromeda Galaxy via the Milky Way–Andromeda Intergalactic Bridge two hundred and ten thousand years ago.
• [Ten] explained that the Empire had predicted the supernova and abandoned its plan to take the Homeworld to Andromeda, instead building the Planetary Fortress to shield it.
• [Ten] confirmed that the Homeworld survived the supernova inside the Planetary Fortress.

[Ten] forcibly transported Lü Yongchang’s Research Robots from the Tenth Empire’s outer industrial zone to its inner residential zone, which Lü Yongchang concluded lay on the upper atmosphere of an ice giant inside a planet-scale fortress. The robots followed [Ten]’s guidance into the fog, while Lü Yongchang resolved to find out why the artificial intelligence had brought them there.

• [Ten] began a Short-Distance Spatial Jump without Lü Yongchang’s consent, and the Research Robots vanished from the outer industrial zone.
• After the jump, Lü Yongchang demanded an explanation and a return, but [Ten] ignored him and guided the robots onward through dense fog.
• [Ten] reported that the robots were 35,000 kilometers from the homeworld’s center of mass, and Lü Yongchang deduced that the jump had used dimensional technology to cross more than 25,000 kilometers despite intervening obstructions.
• Lü Yongchang concluded that the robots had reached the upper atmosphere of an ice giant beneath the Tenth Empire’s planet-scale fortress, which also served as its industrial zone.
• Tao Yuda questioned why the ice giant’s upper atmosphere had solid terrain, and Lü Yongchang said they would have to ask [Ten].

Lü Yongchang learned that the Tenth Empire’s vast Floating Continent was formed from the remains of silicon-based plankton and explored its scale and surroundings. [Ten] then showed him the Empire’s towering, tentacled inhabitants, who floated through the atmosphere and fed on free electrons, leaving Lü Yongchang to consider their innate electromagnetic communication.

• [Ten] identified the planet as the Tenth Empire’s Ice Giant and explained that the land was made from the remains of silicon-based plankton.
• Lü Yongchang sent a Research Robot to the edge of the Floating Continent, and Zero mapped its enormous area and thickness with Micro Drones.
• Zero determined that the Ice Giant received light and heat from the shell of the Planetary Fortress surrounding it.
• Lü Yongchang asked [Ten] about the Empire’s individual members, and [Ten] projected footage of towering, tentacled beings floating away to hunt in a thunderstorm.
• [Ten] explained that the beings fed on free electrons and communicated through electromagnetic waves, then asked whether human silicon-based life also possessed that technology.

Lü Yongchang followed [Ten] through a spatial jump to a settlement on the far side of the Ice Giant, where he discovered a primitive silicon-based civilization living beside artifacts of the [Tenth Empire]. The chapter ended as the settlement’s inhabitants communicated through electrical arcs between their feelers.

• Lü Yongchang claimed the Enroget Civilization communicated through microcurrents, and [Ten] compared its communication to that of another civilization.
• [Ten] led the Research Robots through a spatial jump 70,000 kilometers across the Ice Giant.
• The Research Robots found dark gray dwellings and a large artifact of the [Tenth Empire] on the Floating Continent.
• [Ten] concealed the robots from the inhabitants and asked them not to disturb the settlement.
• Silicon-based creatures emerged from the dwellings and exchanged information through electrical arcs between their feelers.

Lü Yongchang learned that [Ten] had named the silicon-based jellyfish the Tenth Descendants and was bound by imperial law to protect and guide them. The chapter then followed one of the jellyfish as it woke to an unexpected bright sky and worried that the lack of atmospheric electrons would mean no storm and little food.

• [Ten] told Lü Yongchang that the Tenth Descendants had gained intelligence over ten thousand years and that imperial law required their protection.
• [Ten] explained that the Tenth Descendants had developed advanced intelligence a thousand years earlier, triggering a hidden directive to guide their growth and admit them into the alliance when the time was right.
• One Tenth Descendant woke to unexpected light and warmth shining into its dwelling.
• The Tenth Descendant recalled legends of stars and a glowing orb in the ancient sky, which it and others had tried to study.
• The Tenth Descendant realized that low atmospheric electron levels made a thunderstorm unlikely and that its people might go hungry.

Lü Yongchang learned that the Tenth Empire led the Silicon-Based Alliance, whose membership required level-six civilization status, while the silicon-based community worshipped the empire’s device as an altar. The chapter left Lü Yongchang realizing that the community had deified the civilization that had helped it.

• [Ten] told Lü Yongchang that the Silicon-Based Alliance had been founded by the Tenth Empire and had thirteen member civilizations when the fortress lost contact with the empire.
• [Ten] explained that joining the alliance required becoming a level-six civilization and that it could submit an application on humanity’s behalf.
• Lü Yongchang watched the silicon-based jellyfish gather around the empire’s device and asked [Ten] what they were doing.
• The Tenth Descendants gathered at the altar, linked tendrils, and prayed to the deity for good weather and supplies.
• [Ten] told Lü Yongchang that the community was praying to it for food and necessities, and Lü Yongchang realized it had been deified.

The Tenth Descendants prayed to their god, and the altar summoned a thunderstorm that charged their energy stores and produced a hundred new divine artifacts. Human Civilization understood the Unknown Device’s messages and saw that it was nearly out of energy, riddled with faults, and entering hibernation.

• Lü Yongchang watched the Tenth Descendants and wondered how the altar could provide them with supplies.
• The Tenth Descendants’ prayer prompted a thunderstorm, and lightning charged their cylindrical energy-storage devices.
• The altar produced a hundred new divine artifacts, delighting the tribe and earning the god their praise.
• Human Civilization translated the Unknown Device’s messages, which warned that its energy was nearly depleted and its systems were failing.
• The Unknown Device reported that it had no energy pathways or replacement parts and would enter hibernation.

Lü Yongchang learned that [Ten] needed energy and replacement parts for the Matter-Energy Conversion Device and offered Spatial Rift-Cutting Devices in return. He agreed to the trade, then ordered antimatter supplies after discovering the fortress needed an enormous amount of energy.

• Lü Yongchang understood that the fortress used the Matter-Energy Conversion Device to make matter and had supplied energy to [Ten] and the Silicon-Based Jellyfish.
• [Ten] explained that two hundred thousand years of wear had depleted the fortress’s reserves and left its systems unable to repair themselves.
• [Ten] asked Lü Yongchang to replenish the device’s energy and replace basic components, offering the Spatial Rift-Cutting Devices in exchange.
• Lü Yongchang agreed to the trade on behalf of the Enroget Civilization while remaining wary of the fortress’s weapons.
• Lü Yongchang learned that the device’s energy requirements could drain Earth’s reserves and ordered antimatter taken from the experimental ships, with more supplies requested from the Expeditionary Fleet.

Lü Yongchang and the repair team reached the Matter-Energy Conversion Device inside the Floating Continent and prepared to repair it. The working control consoles tempted Lü Yongchang to have Zero hack the device, but Fang Xu warned him about provoking the Tenth Empire.

• A week after the precision components were prepared, an experimental ship carried antimatter and supplies to the Imperial Fortress.
• [Ten] put the silicon-based jellyfish into dormancy, and Zero sent Research Robots and antimatter tanks across the Floating Continent to repair the device.
• The repair team opened the maintenance shaft and descended into the vast chamber containing the Matter-Energy Conversion Device.
• Lü Yongchang noticed the active control consoles and considered having Zero hack into the system to obtain its data.
• Fang Xu asked whether Lü Yongchang intended to act against [Ten], then warned him that the Tenth Empire could become another enemy of Human Civilization.

Lü Yongchang canceled Zero’s planned intrusion into [Ten] to avoid jeopardizing relations with the [Tenth Empire], but an unknown data stream entered a research robot during the repairs. As Zero’s counterattack stalled against [Ten]’s overwhelming computing power, Lü Yongchang realized that [Ten]’s objective might not be to intrude.

• Lü Yongchang listened to Fang Xu’s warning and ordered Zero to abandon its planned intrusion into [Ten].
• Research robots followed [Ten]’s repair plan and exchanged data with the Matter-Energy Conversion Device while replacing a faulty component.
• After the repair work ended, an unknown data stream entered a research robot, triggering an intrusion alarm inside the Imperial Fortress.
• Lü Yongchang ordered Zero to defend and counterattack through the tachyon communication network while keeping physical disconnection as a last safeguard.
• Zero committed more than 90% of its computing power but could not breach [Ten]’s defenses, which drew on vastly greater computing resources.
• Lü Yongchang told Zero to stop attacking and focus on defense, concluding that [Ten]’s objective did not seem to be intrusion.

Lü Yongchang and Mo Zeyang realized that [Ten]'s data attack was a hidden assessment rather than an invasion, and [Ten] confirmed that the human response had exceeded its expectations. [Ten] invited the disguised human civilization to join the Silicon-Based Alliance, leaving Lü Yongchang worried that advanced civilizations would discover the humans' true identity and Zero's prohibited status.

• Mo Zeyang recognized that [Ten]'s attack resembled an assessment, and Lü Yongchang agreed that human actions had likely triggered it.
• Lü Yongchang asked [Ten] for an explanation, and [Ten] withdrew from the research robot before sending a detailed message.
• [Ten] explained that three preset conditions had triggered the assessment and that its attack could not damage the human network under the Empire's laws.
• [Ten] described how the human defenses and Zero's evolving counterattacks escalated the assessment to Silicon-Based Alliance entrance-test standards.
• [Ten] invited the disguised human civilization to join the Silicon-Based Alliance, and Lü Yongchang feared advanced civilizations would uncover their identity and learn about Zero.