Chapter Summaries

The Three Races’ Home Planets came under attack from fleets they believed belonged to the Chaos Faction, while the Alliance Council ignored their requests for help. After forty hours without aid, the Three Races decided to join the Chaos Faction, whose fleets replied that they planned to use the starfield as an outpost against the Order Faction.

• The Three Races activated their planetary defenses and sent fleets to fight the attacking warships, but their defense fleets were destroyed outside the protected range.
• The Three Races requested help from the Alliance Council, which replied only “Noted” and later told them to “Wait a little.”
• The attacking fleets bombarded the Home Planets, forcing the Three Races to spend enormous amounts of star source powering their defenses.
• After roughly forty hours without reinforcements and with their messages to outside allies unanswered, the Three Races realized the Order Faction had abandoned them.
• The leaders of the Three Races contacted the “Chaos Faction” fleets and decided to join them; the fleets replied that they intended to use the starfield as an outpost to encroach on Order Faction territory.

The Three Races accepted the Chaos Faction’s generous offer, sold their assets, and moved their populations toward the Solar System, where they found the fleets already trapped at its edge. Meanwhile, Lu Xiao and Antie prepared the Star-Lighting Plan in the Present World, unaware of the migration’s arrival.

• The Chaos Council offered the Three Races enormous compensation for surrendering their home planets, and their leaders decided to join the Chaos Faction.
• The Chaos Council bought the Three Races’ planetary holdings with star source, and the races began arranging their evacuation through Universe Logistics Company.
• The Three Races sent their populations and fleets through spatial passages toward the Solar System, bringing only essential resources.
• The migration fleets reached the Solar System and found the two fleets trapped at its edge, leaving both groups and the Three Races’ leaders bewildered.
• Lu Xiao worked with Antie to prepare the Star-Lighting Plan, which would use obedient soldiers rather than robots controlled by artificial intelligence.

Antie persuaded ten thousand steady-tempered people to undertake a mission with only a seven percent chance of success by showing them what species registration and igniting the star could mean for humanity’s future. After they pledged themselves to the plan, Lu Xiao questioned whether Antie was ready to die for it, and Antie insisted that he valued his own life.

• Antie announced that the ten thousand selected people would undertake a mission with only a seven percent chance of success, and the crowd waited for him to explain why it mattered.
• Antie described the benefits of species registration and said that igniting the star could let humanity live in the sunlight and give future generations a life beyond endless war.
• A highly ranked genetically modified warrior spoke against passing the war’s burdens to descendants, prompting many people to voice their grievances and accept the mission.
• Antie asked the crowd to take the gamble with him, and they raised their hands and pledged, “May our will endure forever, may civilization endure forever!”
• Back at the hotel, Lu Xiao asked whether Antie was prepared to give his life for the plan, and Antie replied that he valued his life even more than Lu Xiao imagined.

With one week remaining before the plan to reignite the Sun, Lu Xiao worried that Antie might sacrifice himself, then struggled to find a way to improve the mission’s seven-percent success rate. The ten thousand recruits arrived at a factory to undergo modifications that would leave them with only a week to live.

• Antie reasoned that Lu Xiao’s authority, “Miracle,” might take effect during the plan, but Lu Xiao left without answering him.
• Lu Xiao told the Warden about Antie, and the Warden argued that Antie’s rationality and limited power made him unlikely to give his life for the operation.
• The Warden reminded Lu Xiao that he still needed to decide how to participate, while the plan’s team prepared to deliver and detonate more than thirty thousand nuclear warheads on the Sun.
• Lu Xiao considered how to use his power to raise the plan’s seven-percent success rate but could not find a way.
• The ten thousand recruits were taken to a factory, where the Doctor, a skeleton in a white lab coat, and a bull-headed being awaited them before their final week of genetic modifications.

As humanity prepared a plan involving genetic and alchemical modifications, two Recorders appeared in the sealed region where the Three Races were trapped and began documenting a clash over the authority of Time. Lu Xiao and Death arrived, and Lu Xiao protested after a Recorder speculated that Fate and Death might merge or devour one another.

• Shuns, Doctor, Ivan, and Niu Bo worked on genetic and alchemical modifications for humanity.
• The Star God leaders of the Three Races failed to contact anyone beyond the sealed region and remained trapped.
• Two Recorders appeared and wrote that the Chosen Ones of Time had entered the field to punish the thief who stole Time.
• Lu Xiao arrived with Death and asked whether the Recorders had recorded someone calling him a bitch.
• A Recorder speculated that Fate and Death had reached an agreement and might one day devour or merge with each other.
• Lu Xiao denied wanting anything to do with Death and accused the Recorder of talking nonsense.

Lu Xiao, as "Fate," faced off against "Death" and a growing group of hidden beings while the Recorders mocked and documented the standoff. The confrontation ended with "Fate" revealing that he had tied "Light's" fate to a weak life-form, leaving "Light" terrified and unsure how he had been affected.

• Lu Xiao demanded that the Recorders apologize, but they wrote that he was showing signs of mental instability while "Death" kept a scythe at his neck.
• "Fantasy" arrived in the Orange Taxi, and "Reality" emerged from its back seat as the Recorders speculated about the sides calling for backup.
• The Three Races' members physically exploded when the hidden beings appeared, while the sealed region protected humanity on the Third Planet.
• Lu Xiao challenged "Light" to a duel after dismissing the danger of madness, and the Recorders revealed that "Light" was too afraid to accept.
• "Fate" said he had grafted "Light's" fate onto a weak life-form, and "Light" realized they might already be caught in the scheme.

Augusis revealed himself as Death’s Chosen One and spread the Universe Logistics Company’s territory across Earth, forbidding all disputes there. Meanwhile, a giant guard moth blocked the three Observers on their way to Earth, leaving their response to the Old One unresolved.

• Light realized that Technology might have mastered time well enough to let Fate alter the distant past, making Fate a threat to the hidden existences.
• The Recorders documented the confrontation and revealed that the three Observers had gone to the Third Planet to capture Doctor alive, with the struggle between Technology and Time depending on their Chosen Ones.
• In the Chang'an City Post Office, Augusis dispelled the chaos around him and spread a pale blue curtain over Earth, declaring that all disputes were forbidden in the company’s territory.
• Claudius observed from the Dark Prison as the three Observers were stopped near the moon by a massive guard moth of the Ghost-Faced Moth Empress.

The Ghost-Faced Moths swarmed toward Earth as the Observers realized the Solar System had become a battlefield, while the Zerg surrounded the Milky Way. Far away, Technology declared that Time had lost their contest, leaving the Observers surrounded and unaware of the greater threat closing in.

• Countless Ghost-Faced Moths flew from the second, fourth, and fifth planets toward the Third Planet as the Recorder described their origins and the chaos in the Solar System.
• The Recorder reported that Tina Empress had devoured the Supreme Insect Emperor and that Zerg armies were approaching the Milky Way through passages built by Technology.
• Technology rewound a collapsed Star System, confronted Time, and declared that Time had lost their contest.
• Time regained his composure and disappeared inside a mist of dark matter.
• The Ghost-Faced Moths formed rings around Earth, leaving the three Observers overwhelmed by the swarm.
• The Observers remained unaware that Zerg Brood Nests had surrounded the Milky Way and that the Zerg's destination was the Solar System.

The hidden beings’ intervention in the Solar System raised the stakes because Technology threatened to gain control of Time, while Light feared Fate’s influence over him. Fantasy prepared the Recorders to document another event and turned attention to the abandoned warships, which could advance humanity’s civilization level if claimed.

• Light suppressed his fear of Fate and considered unleashing his own madness to resist Fate’s interference.
• The Recorders prepared to leave after their earlier account had become a rune and merged into their bodies.
• Fantasy stopped the Recorders and said there was something else they needed to record.
• Fantasy examined the abandoned warships left by the Three Races and recognized that humanity could use them to reach level 3 civilization.
• The chapter explained that Silicon-based Life had proposed the civilization-level system and monopolized technological development.

After the other hidden entities left, “Time” appeared and challenged “Fate” over his actions. Lu Xiao taunted “Time,” leaving the two rules on the brink of a confrontation.

• “Fantasy” urged the hidden entities to leave, and the sealed space was unsealed as they departed.
• “Light” asked “Fate” what he wanted, but Lu Xiao ignored them while “Death” raised their scythe.
• The Recorders wrote that “Time” had lost to “Technology” and resented both the digital life and “Fate” for profaning time.
• “Time” emerged from the dark matter and confronted “Fate,” ignoring “Death” despite the scythe pressed against them.
• “Time” accused “Fate” of going too far, and Lu Xiao taunted them by saying he could go further.

Time threatened to strip Earth of its time, forcing Technology to negotiate over the second gambit. Technology brought Doctor before the hidden entities, where Doctor addressed both Technology and Time and began questioning how he perceived higher-dimensional beings.

• Time threatened to take away Earth's time unless Technology yielded, making Earth and its inhabitants unable to move, think, or breathe.
• Technology arrived and argued that Earth was not important, but Time insisted that Technology’s investment in humanity revealed its value.
• Technology agreed to Time’s demand, and the Recorders documented the shift in power between the two overlords.
• Technology brought Doctor to the gathering, where Doctor identified Technology, greeted Lu Xiao with a smile, and spoke directly to Time.
• Doctor questioned why Time appeared as a giant wall clock rather than the mantel clock he had imagined, and Time sensed something was amiss.

The Doctor’s staged tyranny enabled Military Headquarters to seize control of the Present World and return civilization’s power to humanity. At the edge of the Solar System, Time realized the Doctor had outmaneuvered him, then declared that they would fight.

• The Recorders identified the Doctor as a digital life who had taken the blame for prying into Time and ruling humanity as a tyrant.
• Antie led troops into the C02 Containment Facility while soldiers and crowds across Huaxia and elsewhere rose up against the Doctor’s rule.
• The Warden realized the Doctor and Military Headquarters had staged the tyranny to give the Doctor a way to shoulder the blame, and Zhang Weidong mourned the Doctor.
• Military Headquarters captured the Doctor’s mechanically modified soldiers and took control of the Present World as a warning against disputes arrived too late.
• Time realized the Doctor had beaten him, and the Recorders documented that the Doctor had also stolen from Technology.
• Time declared that he and the Doctor would fight.

As Time threatened a universe-wide war, Doctor proposed that Time gain some of Technology’s authority to restore balance. Time offered to waive Doctor’s punishment and give humanity an Alliance Council speaker seat if humanity ranked among the top hundred species in the coming Species Ranking Tournament.

• Time threatened to start a war across the universe, while Technology said he had anticipated the move and prepared for it.
• Light feared that the conflict would force him to choose a side or make him a target, and he hoped someone could stop the war.
• Doctor proposed that Time gain part of Technology’s authority to balance the power between them.
• Doctor explained that Technology would need to receive benefits in exchange, and Time considered what he could offer.
• Time waived Doctor’s punishment and promised humanity an Alliance Council speaker seat if it ranked among the top hundred species in the Species Ranking Tournament.

Doctor proposed that Technology relinquish control over the Rule of Technology and let every Species develop it, while Time compensated Technology. The proposal stunned the hidden beings and gave Technology a chance to surrender one Authority without appearing weak, while Light suspected Time was using negotiations to buy time for an attempt at Transcendence Above Rule.

• Time offered humanity a seat on the Alliance Council in exchange for Technology giving up some Authority, and Technology considered the offer.
• Technology studied Doctor, realizing Doctor had made the proposal without his instruction, but felt gratified rather than angry.
• Light suspected Time was willing to compromise to preserve his position and might be buying time to advance to Transcendence Above Rule.
• Doctor proposed that Technology release control of its Rule so every Species could develop technology, while Time provided compensation acceptable to Technology.
• The hidden beings were stunned, and Technology recognized that Doctor's proposal could let him relinquish the Authority of Technology while gaining additional benefits.

The Doctor proposed making technology universally accessible in exchange for “Time” retrieving a few life forms from history, and “Time” accepted the deal, averting a universe-scale war. Back in Chang'an City, the Doctor explained what happened, and Lu Xiao revealed that he had suggested the idea that helped shape the solution.

• The Doctor proposed that “Technology” relinquish authority over technology and make it universally accessible instead of handing part of that authority to “Time.”
• “Time” agreed to retrieve a few life forms below the level of deities from history in exchange for “Technology” relinquishing its authority.
• The Recorders recorded “Time’s” choice and declared that the balance of the Seventh Universe was about to change.
• The Doctor returned to Chang'an City and told the Warden and Augusis that his preparations had disrupted the overlords’ plans and averted a universe-scale war.
• Lu Xiao admitted that he had suggested an alternative after rejecting the Doctor’s plan to take all the blame, because he realized “Time” could overturn the board.

Lu Xiao’s card-game analogy persuaded the Doctor to seek a draw between “Time” and “Technology” rather than provoke a devastating war. After the crisis, delegations arrived on Earth to witness humanity ignite its star, and the Director returned to the Present World ready to boast to the Warden.

• Lu Xiao advised the Doctor to avoid taking all the blame and to keep “Time” from flipping the table by seeking a draw that would preserve humanity’s room to maneuver.
• The Doctor followed Lu Xiao’s suggestion, drew “Technology” and “Time” into the confrontation, and kept backup plans in case “Time” punished him.
• After the incident, species across the Universe sent delegations to the Solar System to witness humanity ignite its star and join the Orderly Species Faction.
• The Mother God Elves’ delegation arrived on Earth with the Director, who was preparing to join their Deliberative Council under Lan’s arrangements.
• The Director returned to the Present World, pushed documents into the Warden’s face, and demanded that the Warden call him Daddy.

The Director brought the Warden more than three hundred proposals for cooperation between humanity and the Mother God Elves, but the Warden concluded that humanity had better options. Although he was reluctant to reject a species with which humanity already had a foundation of trust, he left the decision unresolved.

• The Director delivered the Warden a stack of cooperation proposals, including a plan for trade between the two species.
• The Warden read the proposals, which covered trade, public welfare, military affairs, and other fields, and recognized that they would bind the species’ interests closely together.
• The Mother God Elves’ Deliberative Council had drafted the plans after learning of humanity’s potential and hoping to benefit from helping humanity reach the top hundred in the Species Ranking Tournament.
• The Warden told the Director that the terms were acceptable but that humanity could not sign, since other species had strong reasons to seek cooperation with humanity and humanity had better options.
• The Warden, now leader of humanity’s provisional government, remained personally inclined to cooperate with the Mother Goddess Elves because the species had worked together before and shared a foundation of trust.

The Warden and the senior leaders debated whether humanity should cooperate with the Mother God Elves, weighing the risks of retaliation from other species against the benefits of an alliance. Lu Xiao was drawn into the discussion after nearly eating a fruit that could make him pregnant, and the group remained concerned about trust and the cost of choosing a partner.

• The Warden summoned Lu Xiao and the other senior leaders to discuss the Mother God Elves’ offer of cooperation.
• The Warden explained that humanity should wait for other species’ offers because choosing the Mother God Elves could invite covert interference, and the group agreed the elves might not withstand the pressure.
• Lu Xiao tried to eat an unfamiliar fruit from the Mother Goddess Star, but the Director stopped him and explained that it could make him a father.
• The Warden asked Lu Xiao to suggest a way for humanity to avoid retaliation while securing the greatest benefits from cooperation.
• Lu Xiao recognized that the leaders favored cooperating with the Mother God Elves but remained wary because trust was difficult and a mistake could ruin humanity.

Lu Xiao proposed establishing a school where representatives of other species could learn basic science, with the Mother God Elves providing the principal and sharing the profits. The group approved the plan, but humanity first had to complete Species Registration before putting it into action.

• Lu Xiao considered how humanity could bind the Mother God Elves to a lasting alliance by sharing risks and drawing outside attention toward them.
• Lu Xiao proposed opening a school to teach other species basic science for tuition, easing pressure on humanity while bringing business to Earth.
• Lu Xiao suggested that the Mother God Elves provide the principal and split the Star Source earned by the school with humanity.
• Everyone present approved Lu Xiao's plan and began discussing tuition, though they recognized that Species Registration had to come first.

Lu Xiao and the others set tuition, accommodation, and ideological requirements for their interspecies school, naming it Galaxy Academy. Meanwhile, "Time" reversed history to retrieve lives for "Technology" and uncovered secrets about the Seventh Universe and the Outer Gods.

• Lu Xiao proposed tuition for the academy, and the Director, the Warden, and the Doctor debated the price before settling on one billion Star Source per student, per subject, per semester.
• The group planned tiered accommodations and compulsory ideological subjects, including Confucian teachings, and named the school Galaxy Academy.
• "Time" began reversing time in an exhausted star system to retrieve lives that "Technology" had specified.
• While reversing time, "Time" learned that Outer Gods had destroyed Earth and discovered that the Seventh Universe had begun with only him and "Truth."
• "Time" reflected on the Recorders, the Observers, and the role of "Truth," then wondered what purpose the Outer Gods served.