Recaps

Lin Mo and Zhao Gang discussed whether Great Xia should cooperate with the Kona Civilization, agreeing that they needed more information and should protect their coordinates. Lin Mo then toured the bustling Fief, where trade and daily life continued to grow despite the threat of the Demon Clan.

• Zhao Gang explained that Great Xia should regulate Terrans' entry for business while allowing more tourism.
• Lin Mo favored cooperation with the Kona Civilization, and Zhao Gang warned that Blue Star's defenses depended heavily on the Antimatter Bomb and Terra's Seventh-Order Experts.
• Lin Mo acknowledged that Blue Star's technology was uneven and that Kona's multi-planet industry meant it should not be underestimated.
• Zhao Gang endorsed Han's plan to exchange intelligence without revealing core coordinates or opening passageways.
• Lin Mo toured the Fief and saw busy shops, internet cafés, food stalls, and Minotaur porters working under Great Xia's rules.

Lin Mo returned from Terra to Blue Star and reviewed the global Demon Clan situation with Han Niba, who reported that closing the polar Space Wormholes had slowed new arrivals. The first twenty Custom Communication Shells for replying to the Kona Civilization were completed, while the equatorial front remained the main threat.

• Lin Mo left Terra after watching the two worlds’ people rebuild their lives together and transferred the Spatial Ring from his sleeping body to his awake one.
• Lin Mo arrived at the Tianshu Commander-in-Chief Center, where Han Niba reported that new Demon Clan arrivals had fallen by twenty-seven percent in six hours after twenty polar Space Wormholes were closed.
• Han Niba said Great Xia expected to clear the Arctic within a week and Antarctica within about a month, but the vast, harsh equatorial region could not be contained.
• Lin Mo said he would continue working with the Terra Allied Army to clear the remaining Space Wormholes.
• A staff officer reported that the first twenty Custom Communication Shells for replying to the Kona Civilization had passed inspection.

Lin Mo prepared to broadcast Great Xia’s reply to the Kona Civilization and led the Terra experts to destroy more space wormholes. At the equator, he revealed that Blue Star’s rotation had slowed, forcing its people to retreat to the poles and underground.

• Han Niba gave Lin Mo communications rounds loaded with Great Xia’s reply for the Kona Home Planet, and Lin Mo set out to broadcast it through the wormholes.
• Lin Mo visited Pangu II, where Zhao Kexia described its upgrades, while Fendona saw them together and left in a huff.
• Lin Mo gathered the fifteen seventh-order Terra experts and took them through a portal to a scorched region near the equator.
• Ede asked Lin Mo why Blue Star had become devastated, and Lin Mo explained that the planet’s slowed rotation had caused catastrophic chain reactions and forced people to migrate to the poles and underground.
• The Terra experts expressed condolences after Lin Mo explained Blue Star’s disaster.

Lin Mo and his team sent Great Xia’s reply to the Kona Civilization through a series of Space Wormholes while destroying each one to slow the Demon Clan’s reinforcements. At the Kona Home Planet, the chapter revealed that the Kona People had gone extinct a thousand years earlier and left their civilization operating under the Strong artificial intelligence-Watcher.

• Lin Mo’s team cleared a cavern around a Space Wormhole, sent a reconnaissance shell through it, and fired a communication shell carrying Great Xia’s reply toward the Kona Home Planet.
• After destroying the Wormhole, Lin Mo led the group to more locations, where they repeated the process of scouting, broadcasting, and closing Wormholes.
• The communication shells continued broadcasting toward the Kona Home Planet, though Lin Mo did not know whether the Kona Civilization had received them.
• The Kona Home Planet’s automated factories, transport systems, and defenses continued operating despite the absence of living inhabitants.
• The chapter revealed that a viral catastrophe had wiped out the Kona People a thousand years earlier, after which their final creation, Strong artificial intelligence-Watcher, remained.

Watcher received a broadcast from Great Xia of the Blue Star Civilization, which offered to cooperate against the Demon Clan. After assessing the signal and discovering Blue Star had struck the Demon Clan near Kona, Watcher suspended the planet’s destruction protocol and sent a formal reply.

• Watcher detected an unknown electromagnetic broadcast near the satellite occupied by the Demon Clan and translated its message from Great Xia of the Blue Star Civilization.
• Watcher assessed the broadcast as unlikely to be a Demon Clan deception and identified Blue Star as an unknown technological civilization.
• Watcher traced the signal to the nearby satellite and used reconnaissance images to confirm that the Demon Clan’s space wormholes had decreased.
• Watcher concluded that Blue Star had attacked through the wormholes and recalculated the Kona Civilization’s chance of survival as 3.91 percent.
• Watcher suspended the Planetary Core Chain-Detonation Protocol, prepared war intelligence and technology for cooperation, and broadcast a reply toward the Demon Clan’s satellite.

Great Xia received a reply from the Kona Civilization, which agreed to cooperate against the Demon Clan and revealed that its people had gone extinct over a thousand years earlier. The message described Kona’s AI-run resistance, its deteriorating defenses, and the Demon Clan’s wormhole network and abilities.

• Han Niba’s command center decoded a new electromagnetic signal from the Kona Civilization in a data packet sent by Lin Mo.
• The Kona Civilization confirmed it had received Great Xia’s message and agreed to share intelligence, exchange technology, and coordinate against the Demon Clan.
• The Kona Civilization revealed that its intelligent life had gone extinct in a planetary viral disaster 1,037 Kona Standard Years earlier, and that the AI Watcher continued its civilization.
• The Kona Civilization reported that its fleets were destroyed, its colonies had fallen, and its home planet’s defenses could hold for only one more Kona Year.
• The Kona Civilization described the Demon Clan’s wormhole transit network, the abilities of its high-ranking individuals, and the vulnerability of wormhole anchors.

Han Niba reviewed Kona Civilization’s requests and technology catalog, while Great Xia’s scientists discovered that Kona’s research could resolve major problems and correct years of mistaken approaches. The chapter left Great Xia eager to obtain the technologies, though it still lacked solutions for penetrating Demon Clan shields and developing biological weapons against them.

• Han Niba asked Great Xia’s scientists whether they had found ways to break Demon Gods’ shields or create viruses against the Demon Clan, and they reported little progress.
• Han Niba read Kona Civilization’s list of technologies it could offer, including automated industry, shipboard shields, quantum computing, and ecological transformation.
• Professor Chen found that Kona’s alloy formulas identified hafnium as the missing fourth constituent after titanium, aluminum, and zirconium.
• Researcher Zhou realized Kona’s fusion battery research used inertial confinement rather than the magnetic confinement approach his team had pursued.
• Dr. Wu discovered that Kona’s artificial intelligence used neuromorphic architecture, while a quantum computing researcher recognized that Kona’s catalog revealed an answer he had sought for three years.
• Great Xia’s scientists agreed that they needed to acquire Kona’s technologies to avoid decades of wasted effort.

Han Niba and Great Xia’s scientists examined the Kona Civilization’s technology catalog and assessed the gap between their civilizations. They concluded that Kona’s technology was far more comprehensive, but Great Xia possessed its own advanced breakthroughs and could use the catalog to accelerate development.

• Han Niba read that Kona had suspended its Planetary Core Chain-Detonation Protocol but would restart it if its main defensive line collapsed.
• Qian Zhenhua and Liu Chengen arrived, inspected the catalog, and confirmed that Kona had a complete, systematic technology tree, including advanced biological research.
• Han Niba asked Qian Zhenhua to estimate the technological gap, and Qian explained that Great Xia’s breakthroughs had not yet had time to spread into broad applications.
• Qian Zhenhua estimated that Great Xia would need at least a hundred years to match Kona’s technological breadth at its current pace.
• Qian Zhenhua said Great Xia’s highest technological achievements were closer to Kona’s, and that its antimatter technology might be a unique advantage if Kona lacked it.
• Qian Zhenhua concluded that Kona’s catalog could save Great Xia at least a hundred years of scientific exploration by showing how to develop existing breakthroughs into systematic applications.

Han Niba tasked Qian Zhenhua with preparing technology exchange lists and a valuation framework, while ensuring Kona's data could not infiltrate Great Xia's networks. The next morning, Qian presented a vast catalog of Great Xia's technological needs, revealing how many gaps it still needed to address.

• Han Niba ordered Qian Zhenhua to list Great Xia's technologies and needs, rank urgent acquisitions, and devise a standard for valuing technology trades.
• Qian Zhenhua gathered the scientists to work on the lists and framework, while Han Niba confirmed Kona's data had been isolated from Great Xia's networks.
• Han Niba reviewed the battlefield situation as Lin Mo and the Terra Allied Army continued closing Space Wormholes, reducing the immediate danger in the polar regions.
• The next morning, Qian Zhenhua brought Han Niba the completed trade lists and framework after a sleepless night of work.
• Han Niba read the seven-page catalog of needed technologies and was astonished by the scale of Great Xia's remaining technological gaps.

Qian Zhenhua explained which Kona technologies Great Xia needed to acquire, arguing that automated industry, engineering robots, and planetary engines could help save Blue Star. Han Niba saw the potential but was overwhelmed by the cost of the long list of technologies.

• Qian Zhenhua told Han Niba that Great Xia needed a planetary-scale automated industrial system to expand production and build engines on the moon.
• Qian Zhenhua proposed using the moon as a gravitational towing platform to stabilize Blue Star and potentially prevent it from falling into the sun.
• Qian Zhenhua highlighted Heavy Engineering Robots and their engineering-intelligence databases as a way to speed up lunar construction.
• Qian Zhenhua urged Great Xia to acquire shield generators, Kona materials, quantum computing, artificial intelligence, ecological transformation, quantum communications, and fusion-battery technologies.
• Han Niba recognized the value of the technologies but worried that Great Xia could not afford to acquire them all.

Han Niba and Qian Zhenhua discussed what Great Xia could offer the Kona Civilization in exchange for its technology and how to price the trade. Qian Zhenhua proposed mission-based payments as Great Xia’s strongest option, since Kona urgently needed its help against the Demon Clan.

• Han Niba asked Qian Zhenhua which Great Xia technologies would be valuable to Kona, and Qian Zhenhua named Demon Clan-derived substances and Energy Block technology, antimatter, and Terra’s materials.
• Qian Zhenhua explained that Great Xia could trade Terra’s magical products as finished goods but could not yet offer magic and runes as complete technological systems.
• Qian Zhenhua proposed gold as a trade unit, explaining that its rarity and industrial uses could make it valuable to Kona.
• Qian Zhenhua suggested computing power as another option but said Kona’s energy and quantum computing advantages made it unsuitable as the main unit of settlement.
• Qian Zhenhua proposed contracted missions paid for with technological data or industrial resources, and told Han Niba that Great Xia held a bargaining advantage because Kona needed its help on the battlefield.

Great Xia drafted its first formal trade and military cooperation proposal to the besieged Kona Civilization, setting strict security rules and offering mission-based exchanges alongside gold settlement. The proposal asked Kona to suggest a small trial mission and corresponding rewards.

• Qian Zhenhua advised Han Niba to remove computing-power settlement and let Great Xia choose missions according to their rewards and risks.
• Han Niba ordered a trade catalog and electronic proposal that listed only finished magic and rune products, with limits on Life Fruit and Holy Water.
• Qian Zhenhua explained that the proposal disclosed Terra's existence and retained the phrase “limited mutual trust.”
• Han Niba reviewed security rules barring direct network connections and restricting the transfer of autonomous programs and sensitive data.
• Great Xia proposed gold settlement for low-risk exchanges and mission-based payment for military operations, then requested specific technologies and a small trial mission from Kona.

Great Xia received the Kona Civilization’s reply, which accepted limited cooperation and task-based settlement but rejected gold. The Kona Civilization offered three dangerous military tasks in exchange for advanced technologies, leaving Han Niba weighing their value against the risks.

• Han Niba sent Great Xia’s cooperation proposal through Lin Mo’s Pangu node to the Kona Civilization.
• The Kona Civilization accepted a limited mutual-trust framework but rejected gold because it lacked strategic value and the civilization needed military aid and time.
• The Kona Civilization offered a task to destroy the wormholes on its satellite in exchange for a planetary-scale automated industrial system architecture.
• The Kona Civilization offered a second task to retake the Demon Clan-occupied satellite in exchange for Heavy Engineering Robot technology.
• The Kona Civilization listed a third task to retake its six occupied colony planets and their satellites, offering three specified technologies for each planet recovered.

Great Xia’s command staff reviewed Kona’s escalating missions and discovered that Kona had withheld its most valuable technologies, including strong artificial intelligence, as the reward for expelling the Demon Clan from the entire star system. The chapter ended with Han Niba and the others weighing the enormous risks and resources against the promise, unsure whether Great Xia could take on the missions.

• The hall reacted to Kona’s mission to recapture colonized planets, recognizing the scale of the Demon Clan occupation and the forces required.
• Qian Zhenhua noticed that Kona’s final mission offered strong artificial intelligence and other technologies missing from its earlier catalog.
• Han Niba and the staff concluded that Kona had deliberately offered limited rewards first to entice Great Xia toward liberating the entire star system.
• Qian Zhenhua explained that the final reward dwarfed the rewards for the first three missions and was designed to spur Great Xia to complete them all.
• Han Niba and the others considered the immense cost, duration, and uncertainty of fighting across six planets and their moons, and questioned whether Great Xia could afford to help Kona.

Qian Zhenhua explained why the Kona Civilization’s difficult tasks could yield an enormous payoff: its strong artificial intelligence could give Great Xia access to technology far beyond its current civilization level. He argued that the reward could accelerate Great Xia’s development by centuries, but Han Niba was startled when Qian estimated that reaching Type II would otherwise take at least a thousand years.

• Qian Zhenhua introduced the Kardashev Scale and assessed Great Xia as barely Type I and the Kona Civilization as roughly Type 1.8.
• Qian Zhenhua explained that Kona’s strong artificial intelligence, Watcher, had reached a level associated with Type III civilizations, making it the most valuable technology in Kona’s arsenal.
• Qian Zhenhua described the differences between weak, strong, and true artificial intelligence and emphasized how difficult true artificial intelligence would be to create.
• Qian Zhenhua told Han Niba that completing the tasks could earn Great Xia Kona’s fifteen thousand years of accumulated technology, including complete strong artificial intelligence technology and training data.
• Qian Zhenhua estimated that Great Xia would need at least a thousand years to advance from Type I to Type II, and Han Niba interrupted in surprise, asking why he had previously said the gap was only a hundred years.

Qian Zhenhua persuaded Han Niba that helping the Kona Civilization could bring Great Xia advanced technology while moving the Demon Clan war away from Blue Star. Han agreed to pursue the opportunity but insisted Great Xia reshape the mission terms, and he raised the possibility of choosing its own rewards.

• Qian Zhenhua explained that the Kona Civilization's technology tree and strong artificial intelligence could greatly accelerate Great Xia's development and help it avoid abandoning Blue Star.
• Han Niba agreed that fighting on Kona's territory could reduce the risks to Blue Star and Terra, but said Great Xia would decide how and when to accept the offer.
• Han Niba argued that clearing the entire Kona Satellite was too dangerous as an initial mission and that Great Xia needed to negotiate for a more manageable framework.
• Han Niba proposed that the Kona Civilization provide one technology upfront to prove its value and build support for sending troops.
• Han Niba said the Kona Civilization could not decide the mission rewards alone, and Qian Zhenhua asked whether he wanted Great Xia to choose the technology itself.

Han Niba and Qian Zhenhua planned Great Xia’s counterproposal to Kona, aiming to secure battlefield-relevant technologies as rewards for each stage of military assistance. The chapter ended with Great Xia’s draft setting out five missions, staged rewards, and its request to choose the technologies.

• Han Niba argued that Great Xia should retain the initiative and choose rewards based on battlefield needs, while Qian Zhenhua suggested Kona might also want Demon Clan Corpse Refining Technology and Antimatter Technology.
• Han Niba ordered a reply accepting Kona’s mission-based framework but revising the mission details and requiring rewards at each stage rather than only at the end.
• Han Niba made establishing a Great Xia outpost on the Kona Satellite the first mission, followed by destroying wormholes, retaking the satellite, defending Kona’s home planet, and reclaiming its colonies.
• Great Xia’s draft offered one chosen technology for each of the first four stages and three for every colonial planet retaken in the fifth stage.
• The draft explained that letting Great Xia select technologies would strengthen its combat, industrial, and deployment capabilities, improving the odds of completing missions and helping Kona survive.

Han Niba sent Great Xia’s revised cooperation terms to the Kona Civilization, and the Watcher accepted them while setting its own limits on the partnership. It chose quantum communication technology as the first verifiable technology to deliver, leaving Great Xia to verify the data and prepare for joint missions.

• Han Niba approved Great Xia’s revised terms and sent them to Lin Mo’s battlefield terminal for transmission to Kona.
• Three hours later, the Tianshu Command Center received Kona’s reply accepting Great Xia’s proposed mission adjustments and choice of compensation technologies.
• Kona warned that it would treat extremely unequal terms that threatened either party’s survival or independence as a high-risk relationship.
• Kona selected quantum communication technology as the initial verifiable technology and divided its data into seventeen segments for isolated verification.
• The Command Center celebrated Kona’s acceptance, and Han Niba decided Great Xia should verify the technology and avoid pushing for more.

Kona Civilization assessed Great Xia’s proposed trade and offered three sets of priority technological data in exchange for antimatter technology, space wormhole locating technology, and demon clan corpse refining technology. The chapter ended with Liu Chengen asking Qian Zhenhua which technologies Great Xia would choose.

• Kona Civilization identified antimatter technology, demon clan corpse refining technology, and space wormhole locating technology as its priority trade items.
• Kona Civilization declined to prioritize Zheng Gold and Terra Civilization’s special magic products because they could not help its war effort quickly enough.
• Kona Civilization proposed exchanging two sets of priority technological data for antimatter technology and space wormhole locating technology together.
• Kona Civilization judged demon clan corpse refining technology its highest-priority item because it could turn battlefield corpses into resources amid severe industrial damage and resource shortages.
• Kona Civilization offered three sets of priority technological data for all three technologies, and Liu Chengen asked Qian Zhenhua which ones to select.

Qian Zhenhua ordered Great Xia to safely inspect the quantum communication technology delivered by the Kona Civilization. Zhou’s preliminary review revealed a mature system with near-zero theoretical latency, enormous throughput, and broad potential, leaving Great Xia considering how it could transform communications and reduce the risks of establishing an Outpost.

• Qian Zhenhua told the security technicians to isolate the seventeen segments of Kona’s quantum communication technology in a sandbox and validate them without connecting them to core systems.
• Zhou examined the translated data and said Kona’s system integrated quantum-state stabilization, long-distance entanglement retention, relay calibration, information encoding, and resistance to spatial disturbances.
• Zhou reported that the technology could achieve nearly zero theoretical latency, around one petabyte per second wirelessly, and up to one exabyte per second through a wired connection.
• Zhou explained that the system could detect external observation or interference and could link Great Xia’s surface, Underground Cities, Moon, orbital platforms, and future Kona Outpost.
• Han Niba considered how the technology could let Great Xia remotely coordinate robots, weapons, and other systems at a battlefield three thousand light-years away, reducing the need to send human troops there immediately.

At the Tianshu Command Center, Han Niba and the experts chose which Great Xia technologies to exchange with Kona, while Qian Zhenhua organized work to develop quantum communication. They selected planetary-level automated industrial system architecture and heavy engineering robot design and manufacturing technology, leaving the third choice undecided.

• Qian Zhenhua ordered Old Zhou to finish verifying the remaining quantum communication fragments and prepare a complete technical report within twenty-four hours.
• Han Niba asked Qian Zhenhua to assemble a research team to develop quantum communication and produce a first-generation prototype.
• Qian Zhenhua argued against spending an exchange slot on quantum computers because quantum communication research could support them and other technologies were more urgently needed.
• Han Niba and the experts selected planetary-level automated industrial system architecture as Great Xia's first technology to exchange for.
• Han Niba chose heavy engineering robot design and manufacturing technology as the second selection, to support remote construction and reduce risks during the Kona Satellite landing operation.
• The experts left the third exchange choice undecided as the meeting grew tense.

Han Niba weighed the remaining technologies and argued that Great Xia should choose basic shipboard shield generator technology because it lacked any comparable defense and needed to protect its costly spaceships. He began explaining how even a miniaturized shield could strengthen ground forces, but the chapter ended before the choice was finalized.

• Experts argued for shipboard shields, advanced materials, artificial intelligence, and ecological transformation, each citing Great Xia's needs.
• Han Niba questioned whether ecological transformation could reduce combat losses or help establish a foothold on the Kona Satellite quickly, then said warfighting capability had to come first.
• Han Niba recommended basic shipboard shield generator technology, explaining that Great Xia had no mature force-field defenses and could not quickly develop them on its own.
• Han Niba argued that mass-produced, continuous shields would protect expensive spaceships better than costly, limited-use Magic Shield scrolls.
• Han Niba began describing how miniaturized shields could be installed on Combat Robots and unmanned combat vehicles.

Han Niba persuaded Great Xia’s experts to prioritize an automated industrial system, Heavy Engineering Robots, and shield technology as an integrated system for sustaining the war. As they prepared to trade with the Kona Civilization, the group turned to designing safeguards against fake or incomplete technology and mutual distrust.

• Han Niba argued that shield technology would reduce combat losses and complete a warfighting system alongside automated production and Heavy Engineering Robots.
• Qian Zhenhua recognized Han Niba’s choices as an integrated plan for manufacturing, construction, and protection, and the experts agreed to prioritize the three technologies.
• Han Niba asked the group how to secure the technology trade, and officials warned that Kona might delay delivery, provide incomplete documentation, or offer deceptive theories.
• Liu Chengen warned the group not to treat Watcher like a saint, while Han Niba agreed that Great Xia needed rules rather than relying on Watcher’s restraint.
• Old Zhou pointed out that Kona would also distrust Great Xia’s technology and urged the group to establish mutually acceptable trading rules in advance.

Great Xia agreed to exchange three technologies with the Kona Civilization in two stages, withholding the most critical details until both sides verified the initial documentation. The chapter ended with Kona accepting the safeguards and sending its first-stage technology packages.

• Qian Zhenhua proposed exchanging most of each technology’s documentation first and withholding the key details until verification.
• Han Niba approved an eighty-twenty exchange process and ordered a formal reply listing Great Xia’s three technologies and Kona’s three technologies.
• Han Niba added that Great Xia would launch military operations against the Demon Clan on the Kona Satellite after verifying all three exchanges.
• Han Niba sent the reply to Commander Lin for forwarding to Kona.
• Hours later, Kona accepted the phased exchange rules and sent documentation covering 81 percent of its industrial system architecture, 82 percent of its Heavy Engineering Robot technology, and 79 percent of its Shipboard Shield Generator technology.

Great Xia began verifying the first-stage documentation for three technologies provided by the Kona Civilization and found all three credible. The shield technology passed its preliminary review at 4:00 a.m., leaving the Command Center celebrating the successful exchange.

• Qian Zhenhua ordered security checks and assigned teams of experts to verify the three technologies for sound theory, practical engineering, and possible traps.
• Great Xia's experts examined the planetary automated industrial system, heavy engineering robots, and shipboard shield generator technology overnight.
• The industrial system team reported that its production logic was self-consistent and contained no obvious false structures.
• The heavy engineering robot team found the designs credible and complete in engineering logic, despite withheld material parameters.
• At 4:00 a.m., the shield team confirmed that the technology's main framework was self-consistent, implementable, and free of detected misleading elements.
• The Command Center cheered as Great Xia concluded that all three sets of first-stage documentation were genuine.