Chapter Summaries

After the Applied Infinity Project revealed unsettling truths about the universe, Xi Yan questioned what the Time Worm had hidden before turning to the Synaptic Lathe. Rounding pi to an integer altered mathematical rules across the universe, and the Empire used the resulting computational gains to accelerate megastructure construction despite the Keepers of Knowledge’s pleas to stop.

• Xi Yan wondered whether the Time Worm had concealed truths about the universe, then set aside his suspicions to examine the Synaptic Lathe.
• Scientists used the Synaptic Lathe to test mathematical rules after pi was rounded to an integer, and discovered that circles and arcs no longer existed as mathematical concepts.
• Scientists across the universe struggled with widespread changes to mathematical rules, while physical effects began correcting themselves and were expected to reverse within ten years.
• The Empire exploited the simplified calculations to build megastructures faster as the Keepers of Knowledge warned that its experiments threatened the universe.
• The Keepers of Knowledge pleaded with the Empire to stop, but Xi Yan rejected their demands and insisted that the Empire had to grow stronger to face future calamities.

The Keepers of Knowledge called a secret meeting of the Lost Empires to discuss humanity’s experiment altering the universe’s laws. The empires split over whether to oppose humanity, and the meeting ended in insults without agreement.

• The Lost Empires joined the Keepers of Knowledge’s voice-only meeting, where the Militant Isolationists and Enigmatic Observers immediately argued.
• The Keepers of Knowledge explained that the laws of the universe had changed, and the Phethisia Primordial Empire confirmed that mathematical laws such as pi had been altered.
• The Keepers of Knowledge blamed the Sea of Stars Most Holy Human Empire, saying humanity was deliberately changing universal laws through an experiment.
• The Holy World Guardians defended humanity, while the Militant Isolationists condemned its actions and the Keepers of Knowledge demanded to know why the Holy Guard had changed sides.
• The Holy World Guardians and Habinte Unified Worlds left the meeting, and the Militant Isolationists and Enigmatic Observers resumed their feud until the Keepers of Knowledge snapped at them.

The Starfish Republic suffered catastrophic damage when the Kaleidoscope Bug exploded, while Xi Yan watched its forces lose ground and approved a diplomatic maneuver. The Keen Empire and the Sea of Stars Most Holy Human Empire secretly agreed to withdraw from the war and release the Chosen, leaving the starfish unaware of the coming threat.

• The Kaleidoscope Bug collapsed into a singularity and exploded, destroying the Starfish Republic's stored energy and crippling power grids across its Core Sector.
• The Starfish president approved emergency repairs, fleet funding, and compensation, then ordered an investigation into the losing front-line command.
• With the Sentinel Array destroyed, the Starfish Republic struggled to track enemy fleets as the Keen Empire and Habinte Unified Worlds drove it into retreat.
• Xi Yan approved a diplomatic initiative as he anticipated that the Starfish Republic's weakening position could provoke a desperate retaliation.
• The Keen Empire and the Sea of Stars Most Holy Human Empire secretly agreed that the Keen Empire would leave the war and a science ship would open the wormhole in Federation's End to release the Chosen.
• The Starfish Republic mistook the Keen Empire's withdrawal for a victory and believed it would soon face only the Habinte Unified Worlds.

At the Galactic Assembly, Xi Yan defended the Sea of Stars Most Holy Human Empire against the Lost Empires’ attempt to brand it a calamity. The debate ended with the Heavenly People Holy Guardian Empire declaring Xi Yan the legitimate human emperor and calling the dispute humanity’s internal affair.

• The Lost Empires’ envoys accused Xi Yan and the Human Empire of endangering the universe and urged the Sea of Stars Community to recognize them as a calamity.
• Xi Yan argued that the Calamity Rating System unfairly dismissed humanity’s technological work, using the Starfish Republic’s MVP recognition as an example.
• Xi Yan’s argument left the Moranokshiu Empire’s envoy speechless, while the Heavenly People Holy Guardian Empire’s envoy avoided taking sides at first.
• Xi Yan pulled Machine Dad’s diplomatic subunit into his seat and criticized the Keepers of Knowledge’s envoy for slandering the Human Empire.
• The Heavenly People Holy Guardian Empire’s envoy defended Xi Yan as the legitimate emperor of the human race and said the dispute was an internal family matter.

The Heavenly People Holy Guardian Empire’s ministers rejected the Empress’s authority and pledged allegiance to Xi Yan, deciding to give him supreme power through a monarch proxy system. They prepared to bind the empire to Xi Yan’s human empire as ancient powers stirred and a war in heaven threatened.

• The Empress tried to dismiss the foreign minister, but the prime minister and ministers declared that the people no longer recognized her right to rule and that Xi Yan was their prophesied emperor.
• The ministers escorted the Empress from the Council Palace, and the prime minister placed Xi Yan’s projection on the Throne as the court hailed him as Holy Emperor.
• The prime minister convened the remaining leaders, who agreed that the return of old powers and an approaching war in heaven required the empire to ally fully with Xi Yan.
• The Minister of Rites proposed honoring Xi Yan as Holy Emperor while retaining the Empress’s title and granting Xi Yan supreme authority through a monarch proxy system.
• The ministers resolved to remain loyal to Xi Yan as tensions among the ancient alien empires grew and the Heavenly People resumed large-scale production.

The Keen Empire withdrew from its war against the Starfish Republic, exchanging territory with Starfish and signing a peace treaty without consulting Habinte. Freed from fighting on two fronts, Starfish counterattacked Habinte, while Xi Yan benefited from the split between the former allies.

• The Keen Empire's ambassador offered Starfish an armistice and proposed exchanging six remote systems for Starfish territory.
• Starfish and the Keen Empire negotiated an exchange of six Keen systems for seventeen resource-rich Starfish systems, then signed a Peace Treaty and transferred control of their Stellar Bases.
• Habinte was angered by the Keen Empire's unilateral peace, and relations between the two nations collapsed.
• Starfish moved its fleets to the remaining front, stalled Habinte's offensive, and launched a counterattack.
• Habinte asked Xi Yan for more loans and pledged additional star-system output as collateral.
• Xi Yan revealed that he had advised the Keen Empire to withdraw, gain territory, and drive a wedge between Habinte and the Keen Empire.

A Starfish Republic Science Ship stabilized a wormhole and discovered it led to a black hole system beyond the Milky Way, where fleets of the Chosen Country destroyed the ship. Rick and Greeve were knocked unconscious as the chapter ended.

• Greeve and Rick dismissed concerns about the wormhole and stabilized it after verifying the Keen Empire's survey data.
• After resting and signaling the Homeworld, the starfish crew took their Science Ship through the wormhole.
• The ship emerged in an unknown black hole system and Rick identified signals showing that it was already inhabited.
• Greeve and Rick learned that the system was called Isomer's Gate and spotted a fleet beside its stellar base.
• Fleets blocked the Science Ship's escape, declared the system sacred territory of the Chosen Country, and destroyed the vessel, knocking Rick and Greeve unconscious.

After their Science Ship crashed, Greeve and Rick were captured by the Xarenoi and interrogated about their mission at Isomer's Gate. General Zhang ordered them put on the market, then resolved to destroy the outsiders and report to the Pure Leader.

• Greeve woke restrained on a gurney beside the unconscious Rick, surrounded by shaggy-bear captors.
• After Greeve's smart terminal restored translation, he identified himself as a researcher from the Starfish Republic and demanded humane treatment.
• Bohai shocked Greeve and Rick while demanding to know their mission at Ithome Gate.
• Greeve threatened General Zhang with the Starfish fleet, and Zhang questioned him about the wormhole and the Science Ship's stabilization technology.
• General Zhang ordered the starfish put on the market, then told Bohai to report to the Pure Leader that the Xarenoi would wipe out the outsiders.

The Chosen declared war on the Starfish Republic after the Starfish opened the wormhole, while human agents and the Keen Empire positioned themselves to benefit from the conflict. The Chosen fleet entered Starfish territory as the Starfish, still fighting Habinte, committed forces to defend against them.

• The Starfish Republic received a distress signal from its destroyed Science Ship and exchanged hostile messages with the Chosen, who formally declared war.
• The Purity Cult appointed General Zhang Grand Marshal of the Chosen fleet, while an undercover Ashes Agent reported the war plans to headquarters.
• The human ambassador told the Keen Empire that the Starfish had opened the wormhole and gone to war with the Chosen, prompting the Qien ambassador to anticipate claiming the Chosen's worlds and habitats afterward.
• Xi Yan learned from the Time Worm that the Chosen's God of the End was a Shroud-born force seeking to merge the Shroud with reality.
• The Chosen fleets entered Starfish territory through the stabilized wormhole, while the Starfish held Habinte at a stalemate and diverted part of their forces to fight the Chosen.

Xi Yan and a Blorg scientist completed their final joint expedition by jumping to the Edge-of-the-Galaxy Sentinel system beyond the Milky Way. They found a cloaked, hazardous system guarded by an automated fleet and discovered traces of a destroyed hyperlane leading back to the galaxy.

• A human and a Blorg scientist said goodbye before beginning their final joint mission.
• The Blorg scientist activated the Jump Drive, and the nanite-built science ship jumped beyond the Milky Way.
• The ship arrived in the Edge-of-the-Galaxy Sentinel system, where signal interference and environmental hazards appeared.
• The crew detected a machine world and an automated fleet led by a Lost Empire Titan, then avoided the ships and surveyed the system.
• The science ship found traces of a former hyperlane at the system's edge, indicating that a route to the Milky Way had been destroyed.

Human researchers explored the machine world they called the Observation Terminal and uncovered a vast, ancient sensor network monitoring the star system and transmitting priority data beyond it. They left the system’s creators and purpose unknown, but prepared to take control of its drones.

• Human crew members merged their nanites with the Science Ship and sent a cloud of nanites to investigate the machine world while the Blorg stayed in orbit.
• The researchers discovered dense alloy structures and millions of drones, then found that a single overarching system controlled them.
• The researchers traced signals from surface towers to more than ten thousand previously undetected devices scattered across the star system and aimed toward the Milky Way.
• The researchers planted a listening device in a drone host computer and learned that the ancient system had served as an observation station since before the previous era.
• The researchers discovered that the station stored heavily compressed observational data and continued sending priority data beyond the star system.
• The researchers prepared programs to take control of the drones and modify the system.

Xi Yan warned the Blorg not to interfere with the Edge-of-the-Galaxy Sentinel, but the reawakening of the Rixi Reconquest Empire soon became the greater threat. As the Rixi emerged from isolation and found themselves surrounded by human territory, Xi Yan sent them an ultimatum backed by fleets encircling their empire.

• Researchers on the Observation Terminal presented three options for dealing with the Sentinel, and Xi Yan warned the Blorg President not to touch or tamper with it.
• The Blorg recalled their Science Ship from the isolated system, ending their joint exploration with the Human Empire.
• The Rixian Seed Empire awakened under a new emperor, reformed its policies, and renamed itself the Rixi Reconquest Empire in Cosmic Era 2295.
• The Rixi Reconquest Empire sent fleets beyond its borders and discovered that human territory surrounded it.
• Xi Yan surrounded the Rixi Reconquest Empire with imperial fleets and demanded that its ruler choose between seeking common ground and going to war.

The Rixi emperor condemned the empire’s decline while admiring the Human Empire’s institutions, then ordered its antique fleet to challenge Xi Yan’s forces. Xi Yan formed a nanite fleet at the border, where the two sides prepared for an undeclared armed clash.

• The Rixi emperor rebuked its ministers for the empire’s arrogance and stagnation, citing books and memories of the Human Empire as models for reform.
• The Rixi emperor ordered its fleet to confront the humans despite admitting their superior strength.
• Xi Yan replied that the Human Empire would send only one navy and one army, then mobilized a nanite fleet at the Rixi border.
• The human nanites formed a fleet from nearly half of an assimilated Nanite World and deployed Whisper Escorts at the border Hyperlane.
• The Chauvinist Revanchists assembled their antique fleet of Lost Empire Titans, Battle Cruisers, and Lost Escorts for a tacitly defined armed clash.

Xi Yan refused to have his agents assassinate the leaders of the Rixi Reconquest Empire, choosing instead to confront its ancient fleet and demonstrate humanity’s superiority. The two fleets began a fierce battle, whose outcome remained undecided.

• Kai Sha reported that five elite agents had reached Core and could eliminate the Rixi leadership, but Xi Yan ordered them to withdraw and remain available.
• Xi Yan challenged the Rixi Reconquest Empire and positioned his fleet across the star system from its ancient fleet.
• The Rixi fleet emerged from the hyperlane, and Xi Yan formed a giant image from nanites to welcome and psychically intimidate its crew.
• The Rixi commander rallied his crew, and the fleet attacked the Human Empire’s Whisper Escorts.
• The Rixi’s kinetic weapons struggled to hit the evasive Whisper Escorts, while both fleets closed range and unleashed their weapons.

Xi Yan’s nanite fleet crushed the Rixi Reconquest Empire’s invading force by evading its kinetic weapons, overwhelming it with missiles, and assimilating its ships and crews. The Rixi fleet was destroyed, its Titan was captured, and its first foreign campaign ended in defeat.

• Xi Yan’s Whisper Escorts dodged the Rixi fleet’s kinetic fire and battered it with torrents of torpedoes and missiles.
• The nanite ships swarmed and assimilated the Rixi Titan, converting its crew into loyal human citizens who turned the Titan’s weapons against their former allies.
• Xi Yan’s fleet closed in with nanite storms, assimilating more Rixi ships and growing as the battle continued.
• The terrified Rixi commander ordered a retreat, but Whisper Escorts merged into Mystery Battle Cruisers and crippled the fleeing ships with Arc Emitters.
• Xi Yan’s fleet destroyed or assimilated the remaining Rixi ships, doubling in size while the Rixi Reconquest Empire lost its fleet and Titan.

After annihilating the Rixi Reconquest Empire’s fleet, Xi Yan ordered his forces to seize its capital and demand its surrender. Human troops landed at the Imperial Palace, where a Space Marine told the Rixi emperor that he was no longer an emperor.

• The Rixi emperor learned that the human fleet had destroyed his fleet and that its commander was dead or assimilated.
• The Rixi prime minister urged the emperor to sue for peace because the empire had no power left to resist.
• Xi Yan celebrated the human victory and ordered his fleet to jump directly to the Rixi capital system.
• The human fleet destroyed the capital’s ground defenses and began landing troops as the Rixi emperor watched.
• Three Space Marines emerged outside the palace, killed the emperor’s guards, and declared that the Rixi emperor no longer held that title.

The Phethisia Primordial Empire reacted to the Rixian Seed Empire’s awakening by beginning reforms and preparing to revive its own power. At the Rixi Reconquest Empire’s capital, its emperor then bowed to Xi Yan and submitted a surrender document to the Sea of Stars Most Holy Human Empire.

• The Phethisian emperor learned that the Rixian Seed Empire had awakened and summoned his court to assess the threat.
• The Phethisian court concluded that Rixi’s expansion would bring it into conflict with the Human Empire and feared Rixi would grow stronger if humanity lost.
• The Phethisian emperor ordered the empire to prepare for the worst and begin reforms, prompting citizens and colonies to resume production and military work.
• Xi Yan appeared before the assembled guards and Nanite-assimilated Rixians at the Rixi Reconquest Empire’s capital.
• The Rixian emperor bowed to Xi Yan, submitted a surrender document, and declared Rixi loyal to the Human Empire.

Xi Yan forced the Rixi Reconquest Empire to surrender, then offered terms that restored its independence and provided economic aid in exchange for cooperation. The Rixi emperor accepted, but learned that the Phethisia Primordial Empire had awakened too.

• Xi Yan used the Poison Saint and his fleet to compel the Rixi Reconquest Empire to surrender.
• Xi Yan asked whether the Rixi emperor hated humanity or the Phethisia Primordial Empire more, and offered to help Rixi fight its ancient rival.
• Xi Yan presented a treaty recognizing both empires as equals and opening their borders, and the Rixi emperor accepted.
• Xi Yan offered comprehensive economic aid to help Rixi rebuild its fleet, and the Rixi emperor agreed.
• A Rixi messenger told the emperor that the Phethisia Primordial Empire had awakened.

Xi Yan secured the Rixi Reconquest Empire as an ally against the Phethisia Primordial Empire, which awakened and began rebuilding as the Phethisia Arbitrator Empire. With humanity and its rivals drawing the region into opposing camps, the Milky Way stood on the brink of war.

• Xi Yan and the Rixi emperor learned that the Phethisia Primordial Empire had awakened, and the Rixi emperor vowed to fight it with humanity's help.
• Xi Yan departed as Nanites, and the Rixi emperor convened his court to prepare for war against Phethisia.
• The Phethisia Primordial Empire reformed into the Phethisia Arbitrator Empire and began restoring its economy and military.
• The Phethisia Arbitrator Empire sought allies among nearby governments, and the United Nations of Earth signed cooperation treaties that helped it rebuild.
• The pact between the Sea of Stars Most Holy Human Empire and the Rixi Reconquest Empire raised regional tensions as other nations waited for humanity's formal position.

The Chosen invaded the Starfish Republic, forcing it to fight on two fronts while Captain Nais and a wave of pirates covertly attacked the Chosen’s stretched supply lines. The United Raiders then invaded the Isomer Cluster and began plundering the Chosen’s homeworlds, prompting the Chosen to abandon the Starfish front and rush home.

• The Chosen poured through Isomer’s Gate, declared an existence-eradication war on the Starfish Republic, and seized systems across its western territory.
• The Starfish fought the Chosen while also battling the Habinte Unified Worlds, and neither the Starfish nor the Chosen gained an advantage in their fleet engagements.
• Xi Yan ordered the Empire’s covert forces to aid the Starfish, and Captain Nais led his pirate band into Chosen-occupied territory to ambush supply lines.
• Pirates from across the Milky Way joined Nais, who formed the United Raiders with several major pirate bosses, including Black Needle.
• The United Raiders entered the Isomer Cluster, defeated its defenders in suicide attacks, and began plundering the Chosen’s Gaia Planets and Orbital Habitats.
• The Chosen abandoned their battle against the Starfish and rushed back to defend the Isomer Cluster.