Chapter Summaries

Lin Mo opened a permanent Portal between the Arctic and Antarctica, adjusting its exit to the square beneath Antarctica’s World Tree. He shaped it into a huge square passage and prepared to reinforce it.

• Lin Mo carved a permanent Portal array while Secretary Li contacted Chen Jianguo to coordinate its opening in Antarctica.
• Lin Mo opened the passage, then closed it and recast when Chen Jianguo asked him to shift the exit to the center of a nearby square.
• Lin Mo expanded the Portal to thirty-five meters across, then reshaped it into a square about twenty-five meters on each side.
• Chen Jianguo and Lin Shigong celebrated the Portal’s position as workers and soldiers watched, while Lin Mo began the final reinforcement step.

Lin Mo stabilized the portal linking the Arctic and Antarctica, then saw signs of Blue Star’s surface ecosystem recovering before returning to Tianshu Underground City. On the way to inspect the spaceship, he learned that Great Xia had kept the dwarf artisans obedient with liquor and asked what their second weakness was.

• Lin Mo anchored the formation runes and brought the portal into stable operation, allowing the Arctic and Antarctica to connect.
• Lin Mo told Secretary Li to monitor the energy crystals maintaining the portal and replenish them as they dwindled.
• Lin Mo visited the World Tree, where he found grass, soft soil, and earthworms on Blue Star’s radiation-shrouded surface.
• Lin Mo returned to Tianshu Underground City and asked Secretary Li about progress on the spaceship and the dwarf artisans working on it.
• Secretary Li explained that the dwarves had become punctual after management offered them liquor for completing their assignments and let them sample drinks on their first night.
• Lin Mo laughed at the tactic and asked Secretary Li what the dwarves’ second weakness was.

Lin Mo toured the Spacecraft Manufacturing Center and saw the enormous Kuafu taking shape, with dwarves engraving runes into its hull. Secretary Li reported that the runes had already strengthened and lightened the spacecraft, and that the work would be completed in about half a month.

• Secretary Li explained that Great Xia kept the dwarves working by offering them access to precision manufacturing equipment and after-hours instruction.
• Lin Mo arrived at the Spacecraft Manufacturing Center and saw the kilometer-long Kuafu under construction.
• Secretary Li described the Kuafu’s size, capacity, and aircraft-carrier-inspired design.
• Lin Mo spotted dwarves in engineer uniforms engraving runes into the spacecraft’s hull.
• Secretary Li reported that rune work covered seventy percent of the outer hull and had increased strength by forty percent, energy transmission efficiency by twenty-five percent, and reduced weight by fifty percent.
• Lin Mo learned that the rune work would take about half a month more and that the completed Kuafu would be capable of reaching space.

Lin Mo visited the World Tree and discovered that it had taken up playing CF while waiting in the park. The World Tree told Lin Mo that he was happy in Great Xia and would find returning to Terra unbearably boring.

• Secretary Li told Lin Mo that engineers expected to finish the moon portal’s sealed chamber in two days.
• Lin Mo spent two days recovering and exploring Tianshu Underground City, where life continued in an orderly way despite Blue Star’s Great Deceleration.
• Lin Mo went to Central Ecological Park and found the World Tree playing CF with roots on the keyboard and mouse.
• A researcher explained that the World Tree had grown bored with music and movies, then requested a computer and learned to play CF on his own.
• Lin Mo greeted the World Tree, who said he was happy in Great Xia and thought he would go mad if he returned to Terra.

Lin Mo learned that the World Tree had formed a close gaming partnership with a player called Sweet Orange Without Sugar, who wanted to meet in person. Worried that foreign Underground Cities might break through and threaten Great Xia and the World Tree, Lin Mo went to Tianshu Underground City’s Command Center, where an alert reported abnormal activity near Eagle Country’s Freedom Underground City.

• The World Tree told Lin Mo that its gaming partner, Sweet Orange Without Sugar, wanted to meet, and it feared she would reject it after seeing it was a tree.
• Lin Mo left Central Ecological Park and headed to the Tianshu Underground City Command Center to check on foreign Underground Cities.
• Han Niba explained that Great Xia had destroyed the other countries’ surface passages and bombed their attempts to break through.
• A soldier reported abnormal activity toward the surface above Eagle Country’s Freedom Underground City.

Tianshu Command Center detected Eagle Country’s Freedom Underground City breaking through to the surface and launched an earth-penetrating missile against it. In Freedom’s Command Center, Mars prepared a convoy of anti-aircraft and nuclear-armed vehicles to emerge through the new tunnel before Great Xia could strike again.

• A satellite image showed an Eagle Country excavator emerging from the permafrost in Antarctica, and Lin Mo ordered it dealt with.
• Han Niba received Zhao Gang’s approval and launched an earth-penetrating missile toward the site.
• The excavator broke through to the surface, prompting cheers in Freedom Underground City’s Command Center.
• Mars recalled how Great Xia had destroyed Freedom’s earlier tunnels and learned the new exit faced southwest, away from Great Xia’s Underground City.
• Mars prepared twelve anti-aircraft missile vehicles and fourteen tactical missile launcher vehicles carrying nuclear bomb heads to follow the excavator onto the surface.

Mars's attempt to break Eagle Country out of its underground city failed when Great Xia destroyed the newly paved tunnel with a missile. Lin Mo then learned that the vacuum field for lunar travel was complete and went to inspect the planned lunar transit station.

• Mars ordered the road paving crew to speed up and had fourteen nuclear missile launchers prepare to move, but a Great Xia missile destroyed the tunnel exit and collapsed half the tunnel.
• Mars ordered Eagle Country to dig a third tunnel in a new direction and to send small drones out near the surface to contact other underground cities.
• At Tianshu Underground City, Lin Mo's forces celebrated the successful strike, and Lin Mo left the command center after reviewing the global situation.
• The next morning, Secretary Li told Lin Mo that the lunar travel vacuum field was complete and brought him to a planned research base being converted into a lunar transit station.

Lin Mo found that the metal floor in the vacuum chamber could not be engraved by hand, so he devised a way to use industrial robots to cut grooves for the Magic Array. After the robots finished the thirty-meter design, he began filling its channels with materials and drawing spell inscriptions at the nodes.

• Lin Mo learned that the double doors and airtight inner chamber were designed to isolate the Underground City from the vacuum beyond the Portal.
• Lin Mo explained that he could not efficiently engrave a Magic Array into the hard metal floor and proposed using industrial torches to melt grooves.
• Secretary Li summoned three tracked industrial robots, and Lin Mo dictated and corrected the array design in the CAD software.
• The robots cut a precise thirty-meter Magic Array into the metal floor, completing the grooves and node depressions in half an hour.
• Lin Mo filled the grooves with prepared powders and began drawing spell inscriptions by hand at the rune nodes.

Lin Mo completed the Magic Array and opened a Spatial Passage from the evacuated chamber to the moon. The passage revealed the lunar surface as the staff checked the chamber, their spacesuits, radiation levels, and the Portal’s location.

• Lin Mo finished drawing the thirty-meter Magic Array, and Secretary Li prepared the chamber for the spell.
• Lin Mo put on a high-mobility spacesuit as the staff evacuated the chamber and entered the vacuum-sealed casting room.
• Lin Mo placed Energy Crystals and Spatial Crystals at the array’s nodes, then chanted while channeling magic power into it.
• Lin Mo located moving objects on the moon and opened a basketball-sized Spatial Passage showing its cratered surface.
• The staff reported that chamber pressure, spacesuits, and radiation levels were within safe limits as they began establishing contact with the moon.

At Guanghan Palace Base, Commander Han Shujia and his people faced dwindling supplies and feared that Great Xia had abandoned them. A communications signal led them to a magical portal on the lunar surface, where they saw people from home and Lin Mo wielding a magic staff, leaving Han stunned by the impossible sight.

• Zhang Tao told Han Shujia that the base was running out of medicine and food, and feared Great Xia had abandoned them.
• A communications soldier reported a signal from outside the base, and Li Qinghe explained that Lin Mo had opened a magical portal to the lunar surface.
• Han Shujia led two lunar rovers toward the signal source after receiving detailed information from Earth-Moon Command Center.
• The rovers found a glowing portal with a brightly lit chamber and people inside, including Lin Mo holding a magic staff.
• Han Shujia ordered the rovers closer and stared in disbelief as the portal expanded around Lin Mo.

Lin Mo opened and expanded a Portal between Blue Star and the Moon, allowing the stranded Lunar Base personnel to return to contact with their homeland and receive supplies. The chapter ended with Lin Mo stepping onto the lunar surface as Han Shujia thanked him on behalf of all 3,110 people at the base.

• Li Qinghe introduced Commander Lin Mo to Han Shujia and the Lunar Base crew through the Portal.
• Several young men from Blue Star stepped onto the Moon and excitedly bounced across the lunar surface.
• Zhang Tao crossed the Portal, collapsed under Blue Star's gravity, and wept with relief that he had returned home.
• Li Qinghe announced that the Portal had expanded enough to receive supplies, and Han Shujia sent the base personnel to unload them.
• Over three hours, the Portal grew to twenty meters wide and tall, and Lin Mo stepped onto the Moon.
• Han Shujia thanked Lin Mo on behalf of the 3,110 Lunar Base personnel for helping them make it home.

Cho'Gath arrived at the Kona Civilization battlefield with ten Seventh-Order Demon Venerables, and Yaxes offered him Ao Lingsi’s former territory as a pledge of allegiance. After Cho'Gath killed Nichousa for refusing to submit, the Demon Clan Army pledged itself to Cho'Gath as he turned his attention to Kona Star.

• Cho'Gath emerged from a wormhole with ten Seventh-Order Demon Venerables and surveyed the Kona Civilization battlefield.
• Yaxes explained that only Kona Star remained unconquered and offered Ao Lingsi’s territory to Cho'Gath to secure his own standing.
• Nichousa confronted Yaxes for betraying Ao Lingsi, but Yaxes insisted that joining Cho'Gath was the only way forward.
• Cho'Gath devoured Nichousa, and Yaxes ordered the Demon Clan Army to pay respects to their new Demon God.
• Cho'Gath mocked Ao Lingsi’s failure and focused on the distant Kona Star.

Cho'Gath led the Demon Clan to attack Great Xia, following Yaxes's advice to strike the civilization that had killed Ao Lingsi. After his army crossed a wormhole, they found themselves on a barren, scorching planet with no sign of civilization.

• Cho'Gath ordered his army through the wormhole and agreed to attack the civilization that had killed Ao Lingsi first.
• Yaxes urged Cho'Gath to destroy Great Xia quickly, fearing its research and development could produce powerful weapons.
• Cho'Gath had a Space-Jumping Beast open a wormhole to the coordinates in the crystal core and sent a sixth-rank Demon Clan member to scout it.
• The scout returned and reported that the far side was safe, though hot, so Cho'Gath led the Demon Clan Army through the passage.
• Cho'Gath searched the area and found no cities, life, or signs of technology, leaving Yaxes bewildered about where the wormhole had taken them.

Cho'Gath and the Demon Venerables searched the barren planet and its orbit for the Technological Civilization but found nothing. Yaxes spotted a nearby blue planet that seemed suitable for the civilization, leaving him with a possible answer before Cho'Gath learned of it.

• Yaxes insisted the civilization must be hiding underground, so Cho'Gath ordered the Demon Venerables to search the planet.
• Cho'Gath and the Demon Venerables found no signs of civilization underground, and Yaxes pleaded for another chance.
• Yaxes suggested searching orbit for satellites, but the Demon Venerables found none after a day of searching.
• Yaxes reasoned that the Space-Jumping Beast had identified the correct destination and scanned the surrounding stars for another explanation.
• Yaxes spotted a nearby blue planet with liquid water, an atmosphere, and moderate temperatures, and concluded it was the likely home of the Technological Civilization.

Yaxes realized the Demon Clan Army had arrived on the wrong planet because the target had moved along its orbit, then convinced Cho'Gath that the distant blue planet was the true destination. Cho'Gath ordered the army to withdraw, destroyed the old wormhole, and prepared to open a new one underground near the blue planet.

• Yaxes explained that the Jumping Beast's recorded coordinates were correct, but the target planet had moved and a dead planet had taken its former position.
• Yaxes identified the distant azure planet as the Technological Civilization's home, and Cho'Gath warned him that this was his last chance to be right.
• Cho'Gath ordered a Jumping Beast to record the azure planet's coordinates and withdrew the Demon Clan Army through the wormhole.
• On the Satellite in the Kona Civilization Galaxy, Cho'Gath ordered the wormhole destroyed, and the passage swallowed the Jumping Beast fused with it.
• Cho'Gath instructed another Jumping Beast to open a new wormhole underground to avoid detection by the civilization's satellites.

As the Demon Clan opened a wormhole from the Kona Satellite, Great Xia celebrated its recovery and growing prosperity. A new report revealed that Blue Star was spiraling toward the sun faster than expected, with its destruction projected in ninety-nine years.

• Cho'Gath ordered a Sixth-Rank Demon Clan member to enter the stabilized wormhole and assess the civilization at its far end before deciding whether to invade or deal with Yaxes.
• Lin Mo celebrated the New Year with Elder Zhao and Zhao Kexia as Great Xia opened tourist travel and trade with the Terra Continent and allowed Underground City residents to return to the surface in batches.
• Great Xia's leaders gathered in Celestial Pivot City after the Academy of Sciences reported that Blue Star's orbital decay was accelerating.
• Academician Qian Zhenhua explained that Blue Star's rotation had slowed to a period of over twenty-six hours and that its orbit would reach Venus's vicinity in year forty and Mercury's range in year eighty.
• Qian Zhenhua warned that Blue Star would be swallowed by the sun in year ninety-nine.

Qian Zhenhua explained that Blue Star could not be saved because there was too little time to build planetary engines and rising temperatures would soon make the surface uninhabitable. As the officials considered Mars as a replacement home, he warned that Blue Star’s fall toward the sun could destabilize the inner Solar System and leave Mars unsafe too.

• Elder Li asked whether planetary engines could push Blue Star away, but Qian Zhenhua said they could not be built before Blue Star approached the sun and their thrust would become inadequate.
• Qian Zhenhua explained that runaway heating would raise Blue Star’s surface temperature above one thousand degrees Celsius by year forty, making the surface and eventually the Underground City impossible to sustain.
• Elder Zhao asked whether humanity had to abandon Blue Star, and Qian Zhenhua confirmed that it could no longer be saved.
• Elder Zhao called for a plan to preserve civilization, and Elder Li proposed moving to Mars with the help of World Tree seeds and Portals.
• Qian Zhenhua warned that Blue Star’s altered orbit could disrupt the Solar System and cause Mars to be flung outward, ejected, collide with another planet, or fall into the sun.

Qian Zhenhua proposed moving the moon instead of Blue Star, and Great Xia approved a plan to turn it into a refuge before the Solar System became unstable. The New Guanghan Palace Plan began, and the lunar base personnel returned to Blue Star, with Zhang Tao leaving last.

• Qian Zhenhua warned that moving Blue Star would destabilize the Solar System and argued that humanity needed an escape route beyond it.
• Qian Zhenhua proposed building engines to move the moon and creating underground cities, with rotating structures or dwarven runes to provide artificial gravity.
• Lin Mo agreed to handle matters on Terra, and Elder Zhao approved the New Guanghan Palace Plan after Qian Zhenhua said it could be completed within twenty years.
• Great Xia began rotating the lunar base personnel back to Blue Star, where medical teams prepared rehabilitation for those affected by low gravity.
• Zhang Tao was the last to leave the Guanghan Palace Base, and medical personnel caught him as he stepped through the Portal and felt Blue Star's gravity again.

Great Xia launched the New Guanghan Palace Plan to build a self-sufficient lunar city and eventually propel the moon into deep space as Blue Star’s rotation slowed. The first workers and machinery arrived through the Portal, and construction began around Guanghan Palace Base.

• The Great Xia Supreme Command Center and the New Hope Plan Command Center announced plans to expand the lunar base, build a planetary engine array, and recruit an initial workforce of one hundred thousand.
• The first twenty thousand workers assembled at Tianshu Underground City and traveled through the Portal to the moon, where a combat engineer celebrated reaching lunar soil.
• Great Xia moved construction machinery from its underground cities to Tianshu Underground City and sent it through the Portal.
• More than three hundred thousand machines reached the moon within a month and began working under the Quantum Supercomputer’s coordination.
• Engineers began building the lunar city with underground residential, military, farming, industrial, and storage levels, alongside a surface section designed for viewing and defense.

Lin Mo returned to Terra to discuss changing the moon’s gravity with Thorin, but first went to inspect the Two-World Trade Center before its opening. He found the center nearly ready and headed into the Terra Trade Center, where Thorin was preparing his shop.

• Great Xia established layered defenses around New Guanghan Palace and planned to use it as the base for future lunar development and relocation.
• Lin Mo returned to Terra to discuss using Dwarf runes to alter the moon’s gravity, but learned Thorin was at the Two-World Trade Center preparing for its opening.
• Lin Mo traveled to the trade center and inspected its paired rings, contrasting Great Xia and Terra architecture, and customer-focused circular layout.
• Lin Mo entered the Terra Trade Center, where the various races were finishing their shops and amenities, including the Holy Human Race’s planned church.