Recaps

Mr. Daozi revealed that he had copied life from Li Shun’s world to create Earth and had manipulated events to test humanity. He also explained that a Great Star Region Civilization was secretly feeding the Insect Race as part of a plan to unify the Milky Way, while warning that exposing it too soon could destroy the galaxy.

• Hu Yu asked Mr. Daozi about humanity’s origins and learned that both human branches came from his seeding plan.
• Mr. Daozi admitted that Li Shun’s world was the original, that he copied its life to Earth, and that he had once pretended to be a successful man there.
• Mr. Daozi revealed that he had arranged for humanity to encounter a damaged four-dimensional space bubble, but humanity had failed to obtain dimensional technology before it disappeared.
• Mr. Daozi told Hu Yu and Wen Zhonghua that one of the five Great Star Region Civilizations was behind the Insect Race’s feeding operation, but he could not identify it safely.
• Mr. Daozi explained that the hidden civilization aimed to unify the Milky Way and fed the Insect Race living beings in the greater universe, despite the supposed special nutrients being nonexistent.

Mr. Daozi warned Hu Yu and the others about the growing threat from the Insect Zone and explained why their civilization should avoid Alliance Space. He also revealed that Minister Luo had missed two meetings and that he had lost track of another team, though the team had reached the Star System-Level Civilization stage when he last saw them.

• Hu Yu questioned Mr. Daozi’s reasons for cultivating humanity, and Mr. Daozi urged them to grow stronger as the Insect swarm approached a critical point.
• Mr. Daozi said he could not provide technology beyond their abilities, then advised them to keep more than a hundred billion warships in their territory and warned them not to enter Alliance Space.
• Mr. Daozi explained that Alliance Space was a vast four-dimensional region created by five Great Star Region Civilizations, where time flowed faster than in the universe.
• Mr. Daozi said Minister Luo and his group were safe but did not know why they had missed two meetings, and he revealed he had lost track of another team ten thousand years earlier.
• Mr. Daozi reassured everyone that the missing team had reached the Star System-Level Civilization stage when he last saw them.

Mr. Daozi urged Hu Yu and the others to form an alliance with the Xuan Star Civilization and the Carina Civilization, and explained that they would need to remove the Xuan Star Civilization’s leader and free it from the Fish Horse Star Civilization’s control. After Mr. Daozi departed, Hu Yu’s group considered his advice and received coordinates to a newly formed fifteen-star system.

• Mr. Daozi recommended the Carina Civilization as a reliable ally and said it would join if the humans brought the Xuan Star Civilization into their alliance.
• Mr. Daozi told the humans to remove the Xuan Star Civilization’s leader and free the civilization from the Fish Horse Star Civilization’s control, adding that they only needed to deal with a hundred enemy warships.
• Mr. Daozi said the humans should consider the larger picture regarding the Far Watcher Civilization and praised the Tree Race’s devotion to them.
• Mr. Daozi bid farewell, gave the humans coordinates to a newly formed fifteen-star system, and left aboard his spaceship with food and wine.
• Hu Yu and Academician Zeng agreed to consider Mr. Daozi’s advice and try to form an alliance with the Xuan Star Civilization.

The alliance’s leaders planned to defeat the Fish Horse Star Civilization and later seek reconciliation with the Xuan Star Civilization. Meanwhile, Academician Zeng led thousands of scholars and an escort fleet to study the unstable fifteen-star system, where they began gathering data from a distance.

• Academician Xiao proposed freeing the Xuan Star Civilization from the Fish Horse Star Civilization and secretly eliminating its current head of state so the two civilizations could negotiate afterward.
• The leaders agreed to focus first on the Fish Horse and Mu Star Civilizations, while Wen Zhonghua warned that their forces were far weaker than Fish Horse Star warships.
• Academician Zeng urged an expedition to the fifteen-star system, and the leaders sent Wen Zhonghua, Jianchuan, thousands of academicians, and an escort fleet.
• The Tree Race patriarch learned that the Far Watcher Civilization would no longer threaten his people and resolved to restore the Tree Race’s strength and aid the alliance.
• At the fifteen-star system, the academicians observed fifteen stars following unusual, constantly changing orbits within ten astronomical units and suspected Mr. Daozi had created the system.
• Academician Zeng ordered the fleet to remain still at a distance while the computers simulated the stars’ trajectories and the academicians examined the changing data.

Hu Yu and the Alliance joined the Tree Race’s celebration before the patriarch revealed the secret of the Tree Race’s two princes. The princes were once one person, and the Tree Race said they had to merge to secure their people’s future, though one prince feared losing his independent consciousness.

• After more than two years of studying the unusual system, Hu Yu, Academician Xiao, and other Alliance members attended the Tree Race’s month-long celebration.
• Ninety-Seven told Hu Yu that the Tree Race’s secret was troubling him.
• The Tree Race patriarch led Hu Yu and the others through a concealed passage to a hidden planet, where they met Grand Elder Zhigu and a second prince identical to Ninety-Seven.
• The patriarch explained that the two princes had split to evade the Far Watcher Civilization, and that their consciousnesses and internal spaces had divided between them.
• Academician Xiao warned that merging the princes might erase one consciousness, while the patriarch said the Tree Race needed a complete prince’s internal space to produce future elders.

The two Ninety-Sevens fused into one, retaining both sets of memories and restoring his internal space. The Tree Race patriarch named him the new patriarch, and Hu Yu’s group returned to Earth Two to continue studying the Far Watcher Civilization.

• The Tree Race patriarch and Grand Elder Zhigu fused the two Ninety-Sevens, exhausting much of their energy.
• The fused Ninety-Seven told Hu Yu and the elders that both senses of self remained and his internal space had returned to normal.
• The Tree Race patriarch stepped down and appointed Ninety-Seven as the new patriarch, who promised to lead the Tree Race.
• The patriarch explained that the Tree Race reproduced through incarnations and division, and that joining the Star Ring Alliance would help the race recover.
• Hu Yu and the others returned to Earth Two, where scientists continued examining the Far Watcher Civilization’s planet and collected preserved brains for study.

Academician Zeng and the other academicians observed a Reversed State membrane vanish briefly amid the distorted space of a multiple-star system, raising the possibility of spatial folding or passage into the fourth dimension. After the system’s stars collided in a series of immense eruptions, Hu Yu’s fleet shielded nearby civilizations and set out for JD6 to investigate the recorded data.

• After 200 years of drifting, the Reversed State membrane reached the center of the multiple-star system, where the academicians recorded its changing shape.
• When part of the membrane vanished and reappeared, Academician Zhou Xiaohua proposed that it had entered the fourth dimension, while Academician Zhang Xinheng suggested it might have folded into space.
• Academician Liu urged the fleet to notify nearby civilizations, and the academicians recorded the data before the multiple-star system began collapsing.
• The stars collided in successive eruptions that sent powerful energy waves across space, and tens of millions of Grim Slayers formed defensive groups to shield civilizations.
• Hu Yu used warships to protect planetary-level civilizations and help shield stellar-level civilizations from the surges.
• After the fireworks show, the fleet headed for JD6 to study the disappearance of the Reversed State in Earth Two’s laboratories.

Academician Zeng and the other academicians began analyzing the Far Watcher Civilization’s space cannon, while the fleet considered its next moves against the Fish Horse Star Civilization. The chapter left the fleet searching for stronger weapons, defenses, and artificial intelligence as it prepared for a difficult war and the risk of attracting a great star region civilization.

• Academician Zeng led the analysis of the space cannon and found that its enormous shaft and equipment made mass production a slow, resource-intensive undertaking.
• The fleet approved a strategic plan to win over the Xuan Star Civilization and began considering how to defeat the hundred Fish Horse Star Civilization warships in the Mu Star Civilization.
• Hu Yu asked Academician Li Youwei about the Fourth Reversed State, but Academician Li said that research had made no progress.
• The fleet considered virtual matter weapons and stronger spatial attacks but recognized that neither had been proven sufficient against Fish Horse Star warships.
• The fleet prioritized artificial intelligence because high-level insect swarms could disrupt long-distance communication, but simulated battles showed that AI still could not match human judgment.

Hu Yu oversaw the fleet’s expansion and research into entering the fourth dimension while waiting for the insect threat to grow. In 28996, a powerful swarm surrounded a million Grim Slayers, and Hu Yu sent a massive force to destroy it and assess high-level insects.

• Hu Yu assigned computer scientists to develop more autonomous artificial intelligence and continued preparations for entering the insect zone.
• By 20000, the fleet had expanded its population and forces, built Reaper warships, and helped six alliance civilizations advance to star system-level civilization.
• Hu Yu sent a fleet to Epsilon Eridani and waited for Luo Zhigao, but Luo did not arrive after a hundred years.
• In 25000, Zhou Xiaohua used ten stars to send a spacecraft into the fourth dimension, but the craft vanished and could not be traced.
• In 28996, a swarm of level 16 to level 20 insects surrounded a million Grim Slayers, and Hu Yu dispatched ten billion Reapers and ten billion Stingers to destroy it.

The Grim Slayers struggled to survive after two insect kings overwhelmed their million-ship fleet, while the Reapers remained 45 days away. Far away, Tian Feng and Yun San watched the battle and discussed the threat of the insect emperor, with Yun San expressing hope that Zhou Dao could turn the fight around.

• The insect swarm surrounded the Grim Slayers, and Wen Zhonghua ordered the fleet to break out and fight a mobile battle while awaiting support.
• A giant centipede-like insect king pierced a Grim Slayer’s armor and destroyed the ship, while a second insect king also attacked the fleet.
• The two insect kings each began destroying nearly one Grim Slayer per second, leaving fewer than 100,000 of the million ships after 40 days of fighting.
• Tian Feng warned Yun San that high-tier swarms had appeared unusually often and feared the insect emperor might evolve again.
• Yun San showed Tian Feng the battle and said the human fleet’s armor had held against all but the two main combat insects, adding that Zhou Dao might turn the situation around.

The human fleet attacked the insect swarm after the Grim Slayers were destroyed, using Reapers and Stingers to inflict heavy losses. The battle continued as the Reapers surrounded both Insect Kings and sought a way to capture one alive.

• Wen Zhonghua ordered the Reapers to split into ten groups and block the swarm from spreading to nearby systems.
• Ten billion Reapers launched a surprise spatial-cannon attack that killed over two hundred billion insects, including high-level insects.
• The swarm scattered to reduce the damage from the Reapers’ second spatial-cannon wave, while Stingers rammed insects and planted antimatter bombs inside them.
• Hu Yu ordered Gao Jianchuan to find a way to capture an Insect King alive for study.
• The Reapers surrounded both Insect Kings and used repeated spatial-cannon attacks to stop them from moving.

Humanity and the Tree Race exhausted and restrained the two insect kings so Academician Xiao could capture them. The kings were moved toward a nearby planetary system, where Xiao planned to use the openings in their shells.

• Tian Feng and the other Great Star Region Civilization leaders withdrew their fleet to let humanity continue fighting the insect kings.
• After years of attacks, the insect kings weakened, and Academician Xiao told Wen Zhonghua he could immobilize them if they stayed still for ten minutes.
• The Tree Race patriarch and elders bound the exhausted insect kings with branches while the reversal equipment formed thick Third Reversed State shells around them.
• The elders severed their frozen branches and withdrew, leaving openings in the shells for Academician Xiao to use.
• Wen Zhonghua ordered the insect kings taken to a nearby planetary system, and Academician Xiao prepared to arrive with a team on a biological ship.

Academician Xiao and the fleet discovered that the Insect King could attack them with a consciousness field, though Xiao remained unaffected. He went alone to study the bound creature and began directing robot police to restrain it.

• The Insect Kings’ consciousness-field attack incapacitated the academicians and guards, forcing Chen Peng to turn the fleet away until the pain subsided.
• Academician Xiao explained that the Insect King had likely attacked through a consciousness field and insisted on approaching it alive for study.
• Xiao set off alone for the Insect King planet while Chen Peng deployed one hundred million Reapers to secure the surrounding space.
• With robot police protecting him, Xiao reached the crater and saw the fifty-kilometer-long Insect King for the first time.
• At Xiao’s direction, robot police descended into the crater and used Second Reversed State gear blades to restrain the Insect King’s enormous legs.

Academician Xiao used a high-speed reversed state gear to cut through the Insect King's armor and entered its body to investigate its organs. After the Insect King repeatedly refused to answer questions, he reached its brain and severed a tissue strand, then released Little Crab.

• Academician Xiao questioned the Insect King, but it replied only that everyone must die, so he ordered the gear to begin cutting off its legs.
• The robot police restrained the struggling Insect King as the gear removed most of its legs, and Academician Xiao entered its body in powered armor.
• Academician Xiao explored the Insect King's interior and recorded details about its biological reactor and energy storage organs.
• Academician Xiao reached the Insect King's brain and again asked where it came from and what its purpose was, but it repeated its threat.
• Academician Xiao burned a tissue strand, endured the Insect King's violent reaction, and then severed a strand connected to its brain before releasing Little Crab.

Academician Xiao tried to use Little Crab to probe the Insect King’s mind, but the attempts killed the creatures and the first Insect King. After building and testing an enlarged Little Crab on the surviving Insect King, Academician Xiao received a desperate warning before the crab died.

• Academician Xiao connected Little Crab to the first Insect King’s brain tissue, but the creature died after experiencing the Insect King’s consciousness field.
• Chen Peng ordered the robot police officer to destroy the first Insect King’s brain, and Academician Xiao ordered the other Insect King buried inside a planet outside the galaxy.
• Academician Xiao studied Far Watcher Civilization brain tissue and created a large crab that grew over two years before sending it to the Insect King’s distant planet.
• The Reapers exposed the surviving Insect King, and Academician Xiao used antimatter to open its head and connect the large crab to its brain.
• The large crab died after linking with the Insect King, but it sent Academician Xiao the warning, “Humans, run! Run!”

After Academician Xiao saw the Insect Race’s vast stronghold through the insect king, the alliance leaders warned that the swarm might soon make a major move and discussed accelerating their preparations. They also devised a plan to have allied civilizations attack the Mu Star Civilization while using antimatter warships against the Fish Horse Star fleet, though their limited antimatter reserves remained a problem.

• Academician Xiao returned to the base and used a brainwave analysis helmet to reconstruct the image of the Insect Race’s enormous swarm and its central creature.
• Hu Yu and the others concluded that the swarm was likely the Abyss mentioned by the Destroyers, while Crab’s warning suggested it had seen something else before dying.
• Academician Xiao explained that they could not safely link another crab to the insect king, and said he would study the king’s structure to improve the biological warriors.
• The leaders agreed to strengthen the alliance and bring in the Xuan Star Civilization, while having the Brilliant Star Civilization and other allies attack the Mu Star Civilization.
• A leader proposed using antimatter warships to destroy the Fish Horse Star warships by making contact with them, but Wen Zhonghua doubted they could catch the fast ships or afford enough antimatter.

Hu Yu and Academician Xiao considered why the Xuan Star Civilization had joined the Fish Horse Star Civilization and planned to bring it into the alliance. At the first alliance military meeting, the civilizations volunteered forces to destroy the Mu Star Civilization, but the group still lacked a way to defeat the Fish Horse Star Civilization’s heavily armored warships.

• Academician Xiao suggested the Xuan Star Civilization’s leader might have made a secret agreement with the Fish Horse Star Civilization in exchange for a benefit.
• Hu Yu and Academician Xiao concluded they should kill the Xuan Star Civilization’s leader and negotiate with a successor, hoping the civilization would break free of the Fish Horse Star Civilization.
• Hu Yu convened the alliance’s first military meeting and outlined the plan to eliminate the Mu Star Civilization and recruit the Xuan Star Civilization.
• Leaders from several civilizations pledged their fleets, and Ninety-Seven offered to send the Tree Race’s elders if needed.
• The alliance leaders noted their numerical advantage over the Mu Star Civilization but admitted they had no way to destroy a hundred Fish Horse Star warships.
• Situhei asked about the Fish Horse Star warships’ armor, and the General explained that it might be neutron-degenerate matter.

Hu Yu and Situhei discussed using high-energy electron clusters and antimatter to destroy the Fish Horse Star Civilization’s warships, then turned to the problem of assassinating the Xuan Star Civilization’s leader. Muya proposed luring the leader outside their territory during a major upheaval, but the others questioned whether they could overcome the leader’s protection.

• Hu Yu and the scientists debated whether the Fish Horse Star warships’ materials and spatial defenses could be overcome.
• Situhei proposed bombarding the warships with macroscopic clusters of high-energy electrons and revealed that the Brilliant Star Civilization had stockpiled about ten billion tons of them.
• Hu Yu said humanity planned to use antimatter, and the group agreed that their combined supplies could destroy the hundred Fish Horse Star warships.
• Hu Yu asked how they could assassinate the Xuan Star Civilization’s leader, and the South Star Civilization’s leader said the target would be heavily protected.
• Muya suggested creating a major upheaval to make the Xuan Star leader evacuate outside their territory, but the Sand Star Civilization’s leader questioned how they could break through the leader’s escort fleets.

Muya proposed luring the Xuan Star Civilization leader out by making the civilization believe its territory faced a large-scale stellar attack, and Academician Zeng agreed to the plan. After the alliance began preparing for war, Hu Yu asked Zeng to explain his assassination method, which relied on the secret four-dimensional communication network.

• Muya suggested infiltrating the Xuan Star Civilization with replicated warships to assassinate its leader, then attacking the Fish Horse Star Civilization's warships.
• Academician Zeng said cracking the Xuan Star Civilization's communications was impractical, but agreed that Muya's plan to fake a major attack could draw out its leader and residents.
• The alliance leaders committed their warships and resources to the campaign, and Zeng promised each civilization six space scientists if they won.
• The star system-level civilizations began producing warships, electrons, and antimatter in preparation for the battle against the Fish Horse Star Civilization.
• At the Earth Two base, Hu Yu asked Academician Zeng about the assassination method, and Zeng revealed that it required the secret four-dimensional communication network.

An Academician explained a photon-based assassination plan against the Xuan Star leader and proposed the Seeding Plan to create approximate routes through the fourth dimension. The General approved preparations to hide a spacecraft in a star and send photons toward Xuan Star territory, while the Academician returned to research with Zhou Xiaohua.

• The Academician told the General that entangled particles could send antimatter into a target’s brain, but the assassination would require the Xuan Star leader to leave protected territory.
• The General suggested sending particles through four-dimensional channels, and the Academician explained that transmission destroyed their entanglement, making a sublight operation necessary.
• The Academician described using computers to model photons and coordinate a precise attack, which the General estimated could take at least a thousand years to prepare.
• The Academician presented the Seeding Plan, which would release entangled particles to establish approximate coordinates and enable faster travel through the fourth dimension.
• The General ordered a spacecraft to hide inside a star outside Xuan Star territory and let photons drift into its territory with the starlight.
• The Academician returned to the laboratory to help Zhou Xiaohua research how to trace a route back from the fourth dimension and avoid getting lost there.

Humanity secretly seeded the Xuan Star Civilization’s territory with photons while preparing a star-based attack. As the Xuan Star leader learned that a distant fleet was moving a mass of stars toward them, Feng Ye warned that the stars were likely aimed at their civilization.

• An engineering ship entered a star and began sending entangled photons toward the Xuan Star Civilization, while microships slipped into its territory undetected.
• Humanity’s fleet prepared warships, antimatter, photons, and virtual particles as part of its plans for expansion and future four-dimensional travel.
• After a thousand years, the Xuan Star Civilization had recovered and built a fleet of thirty billion warships.
• Twelve billion allied star system-level warships gathered more than a thousand stars into a fiery region fifteen hundred light-years from the Xuan Star Civilization.
• Bi Cha reported that the stars were moving toward the Xuan Star Civilization, and the leader dispatched two billion warships to investigate.
• Feng Ye arrived and warned the leader that the approaching stars were likely aimed at their civilization.

The Xuan Star Civilization feared that the stars detonated by the six-civilization fleet would create a spatial vortex, so Bi Cha ordered its people evacuated from their planets. Hu Yu and the Academician concluded that star explosions could not create such a vortex, leaving the fleet’s purpose and the coming battle against the Mu Star Civilization unresolved.

• Feng Ye warned Bi Cha that the detonated stars might recreate humanity’s spatial vortex, and Bi Cha ordered the fleet to issue a warning to the approaching civilizations.
• Wen Zhonghua ordered the six-civilization fleet to withdraw after detonating over a thousand stars, as its next target was the Mu Star Civilization.
• The Xuan Star patrol fleet became trapped in powerful spatial currents, and its captain reported the danger to Bi Cha.
• Feng Ye advised evacuating the Xuan Star Civilization’s people and planets before the spatial disturbance arrived, and Bi Cha ordered everyone aboard warships within two months.
• Hu Yu asked whether the explosions could form a spatial vortex, and the Academician argued that stars could not create one because matter carried space less strongly than energy.

Humanity prepared to strike the Xuan Star leader with photons while the Xuan Star Civilization evacuated ahead of an insect swarm attack. When the swarm arrived and the leader emerged, humanity held off, fearing retaliation from the Great Star Region Civilization.

• Humanity caused stellar explosions to disrupt Xuan Star space and positioned miniature spacecraft near the Xuan Star leader's planet.
• The Xuan Star Civilization evacuated its people and gathered its warships and industrial planets before preparing to leave its territory.
• An insect swarm of roughly 18 units descended on Xuan Star, trapping the civilian fleet and forcing Bi Cha to defend the evacuation.
• The Xuan Star leader contacted the Great Star Region Civilization, but it refused to send help and said Xuan Star should handle the swarm itself.
• The leader and Feng Ye left their protected building as humanity learned the leader was exposed to its photons.
• Old Hu refused to attack, fearing the Great Star Region Civilization would trace humanity's engineering ships, and Academician Zeng suspected humanity had drawn the insects to Xuan Star.

Academician Zeng and Wen Zhonghua discussed how stellar explosions might draw the swarm through the fourth dimension, while the Xuan Star Civilization fought to protect its civilian fleets. The battle remained unresolved, and Bi Cha’s forces faced dwindling energy reserves and a likely collapse of their defenses within six months.

• Academician Zeng told Wen Zhonghua that the swarm might track major spatial fluctuations, explaining its arrival near Xuan Star Civilization territory after a stellar explosion.
• Wen Zhonghua suggested detonating stars during a war with the Mu Star Civilization to test the theory, but Academician Zeng warned that the swarm could kill the humans held captive there.
• Xuan Star Civilization battleships used a powerful Space Barrier to shield civilian fleets while other ships fought to clear an escape route through the swarm.
• Bi Cha learned that the fleet had lost more than six billion battleships over two months while destroying at least eight units of bugs.
• Bi Cha concealed that the nonstop Space Barrier was draining energy, and the fleet could hold out for at most another six months before its defenses collapsed.

Bi Cha urged the Xuan Star leader to use the antimatter star against the encircling swarm, but the leader hesitated over the danger to civilians. As the Xuan Star Civilization’s defenses weakened, the Reaper and Stinger set out to help, and the Xuan Star leaders recognized the approaching fleet as human.

• Bi Cha proposed moving and detonating the antimatter star to destroy the swarm, warning that the Space Barriers could not be maintained indefinitely.
• The Xuan Star leader questioned the risks to civilians and delayed deciding whether to use the antimatter star.
• Bi Cha failed to break any warships through the swarm’s encirclement, while the Xuan Star fleet continued to suffer heavy losses.
• The alliance leaders ordered the Reaper and Stinger to aid the Xuan Star Civilization, and the fleets began a four-month journey.
• A reconnaissance satellite detected the approaching fleet, and the Xuan Star leaders identified it as humanity and considered asking the Great Star Region Civilization to intervene.