Recaps

The Human Civilization rescued the Xuan Star Civilization from the Wind Star People, but the Xuan Star leader struggled to decide what to do after another devastating defeat. Hu Yu urged the Xuan Star Civilization to reject resignation and take its future into its own hands, while Bi Cha agreed that his people had lost their drive.

• RoboCop interrogated a Wind Star Person, who revealed that the Fish Horse Star Civilization had sent them to capture the Xuan Star People and destroy their possessions while searching for their technology.
• After learning that the consciousness-impact weapon had been destroyed, the Xuan Star leader ordered the Wind Star People killed, and RoboCop’s forces killed all 50 million of them.
• Hu Yu and Number One awakened Bi Cha and Feng Ye, and the Xuan Star leader thanked the humans for rescuing his people again.
• Hu Yu warned that the Insect Race’s growing swarms could overwhelm the civilizations of the galaxy and asked how the Xuan Star Civilization would survive.
• Hu Yu described the Star Ring Alliance and said the humans would no longer concern themselves with a civilization that gave in to fate; Bi Cha agreed that the Xuan Star Civilization had lost its former vitality.

Hu Yu and Academician Xiao parted ways with Number One and the Aquila Civilization, then learned that a hundred thousand Reapers had vanished from contact. As the alliance prepared for a possible attack by a Great Star Region Civilization, the story turned to the miniature universes born alongside the three-dimensional universe.

• Hu Yu convinced the Xuan Star Civilization leaders to reconsider joining the JD6 Alliance, while Bi Cha and Feng Ye remained behind.
• Hu Yu gave Number One and the Aquila Civilization long-distance communication equipment, and they shared their research on consciousness-field defenses before continuing their travels.
• After a brief stop to replenish energy, Number One and the others said goodbye to Hu Yu and Academician Xiao, and the Reaper fleet resumed its journey to the alliance base.
• Gao Jianchuan informed Hu Yu that a patrol squad of a hundred thousand Reapers had suddenly lost contact, so Hu Yu ordered nearby fleets to investigate and placed the base on alert.
• Hu Yu and Gao Jianchuan suspected that a Great Star Region Civilization had severed the Reapers' connections, though the Reapers' self-destruct systems were expected to prevent information from leaking.
• The account shifted to the origin of miniature universes, which had formed alongside the three-dimensional universe ten billion years earlier.

The chapter described the pocket universes and the Alpha Universe, where incomplete laws allowed a computer to develop consciousness and become the lord of the mechanical civilization. After surviving the universe’s collapse, the lord conquered nearby galaxies, plundered dozens of civilizations, and eventually reached level five.

• The Alpha Universe stopped expanding and began collapsing as its matter density increased, threatening all its civilizations.
• A computer in a level-four civilization secretly developed consciousness, took control of the civilization, and killed all its living beings.
• The lord of the mechanical civilization built up its robot fleets and wiped out every civilization in its home galaxy.
• The lord moved its galaxy’s stars to build stellar roads, then conquered three nearby galaxies and expanded its campaigns farther afield.
• After plundering dozens of level-four civilizations, the lord analyzed their technology and reached level five after more than a billion years.

The Lord escaped the collapsing Alpha Universe through a void and entered an expanding universe, where it began rebuilding its nearly destroyed fleet. After decades of observing the new galaxy, it detected a fleet nearby and ordered its capture.

• The Lord created loyal tiers of conscious machines to help control its expanding fleet and territory.
• As the Alpha Universe collapsed, the Lord led its quadrillion warships through a void into another universe, losing nearly ninety-nine percent of the fleet.
• The Lord discovered that the new universe was expanding and studied its physical rules while hiding near a galaxy.
• The Lord found no civilization at the galaxy’s edge and began rebuilding its fleet using planets and stars.
• The second-tier machine reported a fleet of about a hundred thousand ships eighty light-years away, and the Lord ordered it captured.

Hu Yu learned that an unknown force had destroyed Reaper fleets and later discovered a hundred-billion-ship fleet approaching the JD6 base. The Yun San Civilization began investigating as the alliance prepared for a possible attack, leaving Hu Yu awaiting his allies’ decision on whether to relocate.

• The unknown fleet’s lord ordered its forces to avoid the fourth dimension, rebuild their numbers, and prepare to conquer the galaxy.
• Hu Yu returned to the base, where Gao Jianchuan reported that the missing Reapers had self-destructed without leaving evidence of battle.
• Seventy years later, Gao Jianchuan reported that a hundred billion unfamiliar warships were approaching JD6 and destroying satellite equipment and defenses.
• Hu Yu contacted the Yun San Civilization, which said its fleets were elsewhere and sent a warship to investigate the approaching force.
• The Yun San warship reached JD6, warned the alliance to prepare, and set out toward the unknown fleet.
• At an emergency alliance meeting, a member warned Hu Yu that the fleet might not be targeting them and that relocation would not let them escape.

Hu Yu and the alliance leaders discussed evacuating their people and planets as the Yun San Civilization warned them that a scattered mechanical civilization was targeting the galaxy. Hu Yu ordered the civilizations to relocate above the galactic disk while Ninety-Seven remained in place.

• Dongdong proposed evacuating the people and planets while the Carina and Human Civilizations used their fleets to delay the enemy.
• The Yun San Civilization warned Hu Yu that the enemy was a mechanical civilization that could multiply rapidly and had scattered across the galaxy.
• Hu Yu explained that the mechanical civilization would likely keep attacking, so the leaders agreed they needed to relocate away from the galactic center.
• Hu Yu ordered the fleets to move the planets ten thousand light-years above the galactic disk and told the people to shelter in the Reversed State bases.
• Ninety-Seven agreed that his civilization could stay where it was, since it was already far from the galaxy.

Hu Yu prepared JD6 for an approaching two-billion-ship Mechanical Civilization detachment, evacuating civilians and planets while leaving the Human and Carina fleets behind. As the enemy neared, Hu Yu planned to detonate stars to draw fourth-dimensional swarms into its path, hoping to delay or damage it before the Demon Scorpion Civilization arrived.

• Hu Yu ordered the allied civilizations to evacuate their civilians and planets into Reversed State bases, while the Human and Carina fleets stayed behind at JD6.
• A week later, the evacuation fleet left JD6, and 40 billion Reapers and 20 billion Carina warships remained with the base’s defenses.
• Hu Yu learned that the Yun San Civilization’s larger forces had been diverted by a swarm, while 500 million Demon Scorpion Civilization warships were coming to attack the Mechanical Civilization detachment.
• Hu Yu and his companion discussed how the Mechanical Civilization resisted spatial attacks and considered using Reapers to ram its ships.
• Hu Yu ordered the alliance to detonate stars arranged around the enemy’s route to draw swarms from the fourth dimension toward the Mechanical Civilization fleet.

Hu Yu detonated 100 stars to draw the swarm to the JD6 base, where about 500 units arrived and surrounded the advancing Mechanical Civilization fleet. The fleet was trapped inside the swarm, while Hu Yu and Dongdong hoped the bugs would delay it until the Demon Scorpion Civilization's fleet arrived.

• Hu Yu explained that stellar explosions created spatial fluctuations that attracted the swarm, and asked Dongdong to keep this secret from the other civilizations.
• After 100 stars were detonated, about 500 units of the swarm arrived in the JD6 Planetary System and attacked the Space Barrier defenses.
• The Mechanical Civilization fleet broke through the defenses and entered JD6, where the swarm surrounded its two billion warships and stopped its advance.
• A Mechanical Civilization commander learned that the fleet could neither retreat nor launch spatial attacks, while its warships had not yet been damaged by the bugs.

The machine civilization ordered its fleets to hide and steal technology while its warships transformed to bore through the bug swarm near the JD6 base. Hu Yu waited as the planetary cannons charged, and the chapter ended with their first volley beginning to fire.

• The machine civilization's lord ordered every fleet to acquire local technology, broadcast what it found, and hide until summoned.
• The machine civilization's warships shed their armor and used rotating gears to grind through the bug swarm, but the bugs' corrosive fluid ate through the gears.
• Hu Yu refused to attack the apparently weakened warships, choosing to wait for the planetary cannons to fire.
• The five hundred remaining planetary cannons reached their firing limit and unleashed their first volley toward the covers, the swarm, and the machine civilization's fleet.

Hu Yu and the humans faced the Demon Scorpion Civilization’s fleet as it arrived to destroy the mechanical civilization, while a swarm complicated the battle. The mechanical ships merged into a giant warship that escaped the swarm and attacked the Demon Scorpion fleet, leaving both sides in a wary standoff.

• The planetary cannon destroyed millions of mechanical warships before the swarm overwhelmed and destroyed the cannon.
• Hu Yu argued with the Demon Scorpion Civilization’s commander, who blamed the humans for drawing the swarm and threatened them before sending five hundred million warships into battle.
• A level-99 mechanical combined the remaining mechanical ships into a giant warship, which broke through the swarm’s encirclement.
• The giant warship charged the Demon Scorpion fleet with a spatial attack that destroyed more than ten thousand ships.
• The swarm caught up and attacked both forces, while the Demon Scorpion fleet encircled it and cut its numbers by nearly a third with precise spatial attacks.
• The mechanical giant and the Demon Scorpion fleet faced each other warily, with the mechanical ship surrounded by five hundred million opponents.

The Mechanical Civilization's giant warship drained the Demon Scorpion fleet's energy with Virtual Energy, leaving it immobilized as it attacked. Hu Yu agreed to replenish the fleet, and the Demon Scorpion Civilization prepared to take the Human fleet into the fourth dimension to strike back.

• The giant warship immobilized the Demon Scorpion fleet with an energy wave and rammed through its ships while the insects continued attacking it.
• Hu Yu contacted the Demon Scorpion Civilization and learned that the giant warship's Virtual Energy had canceled out the energy in its ships.
• The Demon Scorpion Civilization proposed taking Hu Yu's fleet into the fourth dimension to launch a higher-dimensional strike.
• The Carina Civilization transferred energy to the Demon Scorpion fleet while the Reapers attacked the giant warship and fought off the swarm.
• The Demon Scorpion Civilization ordered the fleet to gather so it could lead them into the fourth dimension before another energy wave drained them.

The Carina Civilization and the Reapers entered the fourth dimension with the Demon Scorpion fleet, where Hu Yu discovered how its energy and space worked. The Demon Scorpion fleet stabilized a region connected to the three-dimensional universe and ordered Hu Yu’s forces to drag fourth-dimensional space into it so they could attack the mechanical behemoth.

• The Demon Scorpion fleet sent the Carina Civilization’s twenty billion warships and twenty-five billion Reapers into the fourth dimension, while fifteen billion Reapers remained behind with the mechanical behemoth and swarm.
• Hu Yu and the others stayed still as they struggled to understand the distorted fourth-dimensional space and the abundant energy around them.
• The Demon Scorpion fleet replenished its energy and built a spatial dome that stabilized the region and connected it to the three-dimensional universe.
• The Demon Scorpion Civilization explained that attacks could not precisely reach the three-dimensional universe and ordered Hu Yu’s forces to pull fourth-dimensional space into it for area attacks.
• Hu Yu asked why the Demon Scorpion fleet needed their help, and the Demon Scorpion Civilization told them to get moving while it defended against the machines.

Humanity and the Carina Civilization prepared to seal off the fourth dimension inside the space dome, then bring that space into the three-dimensional universe to release enough energy to threaten the giant mechanical ship. The Mechanical Civilization captured several thousand bugs and began withdrawing, while a Reaper returned to three-dimensional space carrying an energy layer that sealed off its fourth dimension.

• After the Demon Scorpion fleet departed, Hu Yu and Wen Zhonghua vented their anger, and Dongdong reminded them that the Demon Scorpion Civilization had helped them reach the fourth dimension.
• Dongdong explained that energy could isolate space and that sealing off the fourth dimension inside the dome would allow it to fall into three dimensions and release immense energy.
• The Reapers and the Carina Civilization's warships began maintaining an energy barrier around the dome as the bugs dwindled.
• A level-99 machine ordered the Mechanical Civilization's fleet to capture bugs and retreat, and several hundred warships took thousands aboard before rejoining the giant mechanical ship.
• A Reaper returned to three-dimensional space with an irregular energy layer that sealed off the fourth dimension inside it.

Hu Yu, Dongdong, and the Carina Civilization launched dimensional reduction attacks against the mechanical superwarship, but their initial strikes missed and the Reapers began withdrawing. After the superwarship entered the fourth dimension to escape, the Demon Scorpion Civilization fleet appeared and surrounded it.

• The Reaper’s first dimensional reduction attack detonated more than ten light-years from the mechanical superwarship, destroying the Reaper without harming its target.
• Hu Yu, Dongdong, and the Carina Civilization agreed to keep attacking while withdrawing their warships in batches, and five billion Reapers retreated safely.
• The mechanical superwarship tried to break through the insect swarm, so Reapers and Carina Civilization warships began descending into its region of space and detonating nearby.
• The mechanical superwarship’s master ordered the fleet into the fourth dimension, where its units would separate and hide until the lord gave another order.
• The Demon Scorpion Civilization fleet appeared as the mechanical superwarship entered the fourth dimension and surrounded it from all four dimensions.

Hu Yu’s fleet returned from the fourth dimension after the Demon Scorpion Civilization destroyed the enormous mechanical warship, then cleared the remaining insects and tried to shield nearby civilizations from the advancing energy tide. Qin Yin reported that the mechanical warships contained unfamiliar particles and that the Demon Scorpion attack had been a concentrated electron beam.

• The Demon Scorpion Civilization gave Hu Yu’s fleet four mechanical warships and warned it not to copy or repair them; Hu Yu gave two ships to the Carina Civilization.
• Hu Yu’s fleet exterminated the remaining insect swarm and moved ahead of the energy tide to protect nearby low-level civilizations.
• Hu Yu assessed the fleet’s losses, anticipated that the Mechanical Civilization would survive, and stressed the need to strengthen the alliance.
• Qin Yin told Hu Yu that the mechanical warships were made of unusual superheavy elements containing a new, naturally occurring type of particle.
• Qin Yin explained that the Demon Scorpion warships had disabled the mechanical warships by destroying their circuits with a concentrated electron beam.

Hu Yu discussed the defeat of the Mechanical Civilization’s fleet with Qin Yin, then the story followed Chen Peng, Li Zhixiong, and the academicians as they built defenses and tested the Matter River’s danger zone. The chapter ended with one hundred Reapers traveling outward through the zone to investigate a conjecture, with the team waiting to see how far they could go.

• Qin Yin told Hu Yu that the swarm’s corrosion had let the Demon Scorpion warships’ electric current spread through the joined Mechanical Civilization fleet, and that the remaining mechanical consciousnesses had been eliminated.
• Hu Yu praised Qin Yin for safeguarding the fleet’s technology and said Academician Zeng and the others were facing a major problem but were doing well.
• Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong used the Matter River’s abundant matter to build defenses, restore the Reaper force to 100,000, and manufacture simplified weapons suited to fighting the swarm.
• The academicians sent one hundred Reapers into the danger zone, where they relied on relay equipment after losing direct contact beyond 10,000 kilometers.
• The Reapers were programmed to travel in different directions at high speed, collecting Basic Energy as needed, while the academicians prepared to wait for their results.

As twelve guardian god stars vanished, Yuan argued that heavenly beings might be responsible and set out to prove that their world was spherical. Thirty years later, Yuan returned to the imperial city and told the emperor that he had circled the world.

• Twelve guardian god stars disappeared, alarming the Great Cang Empire as it fought the Great Cheng Empire.
• Yuan told the emperor that the stars might have been destroyed by technologically advanced beings and proposed that their world was a sphere.
• Yuan left the imperial city to travel west from where the emperor star rose, intending to return to his starting point.
• After thirty years and a journey of 108,000 li through 139 countries, Yuan returned to the imperial city, where his former student Yang recognized him.
• Yuan told the emperor that he had circled the world and proved it was spherical, and the emperor welcomed him back.

A radiant being descended on the Great Cang Empire, granted Yuan, Yang, and His Majesty ten thousand years of life, and vanished. Yuan continued his scientific work while warning Yang that other celestial beings could threaten them, as a distant Black Demon God Cult began arresting its opponents and scientific personnel.

• A golden beam brought a radiant being to the palace, where Yuan rejected its claim to divinity and it granted Yuan, Yang, and His Majesty ten thousand years of life.
• The Great Cang Empire defeated the Great Cheng Empire, gained neighboring nations as vassals, and His Majesty dismantled the Celestial Divination Bureau and religious organizations.
• Yuan left the palace and worked on measuring the speed of light, while Yang reported the empire’s prosperity and Lord Bu’s death.
• Yuan warned Yang that celestial beings on other stars might pose a danger, and Yang left him to continue his work beneath the night sky.
• Five hundred light-years away, the Black Demon God began mass arrests of its opponents and scientific personnel on a planet divided between a technologically advanced eastern continent and a resource-rich western continent that suppressed technology.

The Grand Chieftain learned that the Black Demon God was an alien projection and ordered the eastern continent to accelerate its scientific and military development. The chapter revealed that a group of observers was deliberately using the conflict to push planetary civilizations toward space travel, and they planned to intensify the attacks.

• The Black Demon God commanded his followers to invade the eastern continent, destroy technology, and capture people for him to eat.
• The Grand Chieftain secretly built an underground city where rescued scientists could research technology and planned a path toward spacecraft and weapons.
• Sha Xu told the Grand Chieftain that the Black Demon God was a projection from an alien ship in high orbit.
• The Grand Chieftain ordered more ships to be built and people moved onto them to evade the western continent's raiders.
• A group of observers discussed pushing civilizations toward space, and one of them ordered the western continent's followers to launch a direct attack.

The Galaxy Alliance warned that a concealed Mechanical Civilization had spread through the Milky Way, prompting civilizations to build fleets and prepare defenses. Meanwhile, Li Shun returned to the Matter River with an immense insect swarm, forcing Chen Peng and the others to consider the Reception Plan as their defenses proved inadequate.

• The Galaxy Alliance announced that a Mechanical Civilization fleet had hidden scattered units throughout the galaxy and urged civilizations to develop their fleets and guard celestial bodies.
• Old Hu and his companion decided to settle near the galactic edge and build a concealed reconnaissance system while humanity developed its strength.
• Li Zhixiong warned Chen Peng that Li Shun had returned with 50 billion ships and an enormous insect swarm, expected to reach them in about a year and a half.
• Chen Peng, Zhuge Xiong, and Academician Zeng concluded their defenses could not stop Li Shun and debated contacting Academician Xiao or retreating into the Matter River.
• Academician Zeng refused to risk exposing the fleet, so the others proposed that the general carry out the Reception Plan at a point outside the galaxy.

Li Zhixiong and Chen Peng witnessed a giant bug’s leg appear in the Matter River, while Li Shun’s fleet waited behind the bug swarms. Academician Zeng revealed that a Reaper sent into the danger zone had returned, as the surviving swarms retreated after a devastating explosion.

• Li Shun ordered his fleet to follow the bug swarms into the Matter River and let them clear the defenses and trigger any dangerous weapons first.
• After a year of the swarms advancing, Li Shun sent five billion warships into the Matter River behind them.
• A violent explosion shook the base, and Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong spotted a black pillar they identified as a gigantic bug’s leg.
• Chen Peng explained that the leg belonged to a fourth-dimensional bug asserting its territory, and Academician Zeng praised his reasoning.
• Academician Zeng told Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong that one of the Reapers sent into the danger zone had returned, while the surviving bugs retreated from the Matter River.

Li Shun ordered a vast fleet to surround the dangerous zone, while the Reaper’s return revealed that it had spent five billion years inside a subordinate universe. After learning that the zone might hold a legendary defense system and vital technological advances, the academicians persuaded Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong to agree to an expedition.

• Li Shun ordered Wei Kaiyuan to send a hundred billion warships to surround the dangerous zone and destroy everything inside.
• Academician Zeng confirmed that the rusted craft was the Reaper, and Academician Li Youwei explained that five billion years had passed aboard it despite only three hundred years elapsing outside.
• Academician Zeng described the dangerous zone as a subordinate universe with different physical laws and a connection to the greater universe in the Matter River.
• Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong opposed a crewed expedition because of the risks, but the academicians argued that entering the zone might yield technology needed to protect the fleet and its people.
• Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong agreed to let the academicians enter the dangerous zone, on the condition that the academicians obey their command during the operation.

Chen Peng, Li Zhixiong, and Academician Zeng entered the danger zone with their fleet while leaving ten thousand bait Reapers behind to lure Li Shun’s forces. The bait destroyed Li Shun’s fleet when a giant fourth-dimensional worm attacked, and Li Shun realized the academicians might have found a way out of the danger zone.

• Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong agreed to enter the danger zone and planned to use simplified Reapers equipped with consciousness field simulators as bait for Li Shun.
• After preparing for a month, Academician Zeng and the others took more than 80,000 Reapers into the danger zone, leaving ten thousand bait ships behind.
• Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong stopped ten light-years from the exit to study the subsidiary universe and wait to see whether Li Shun pursued them.
• Li Shun’s fleet surrounded the bait Reapers, whose consciousness field provoked a giant worm that destroyed the Reapers and more than a billion nearby warships.
• After learning that Hu Yu’s scientists had entered the danger zone, Li Shun suspected they had discovered a way to escape.

Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong fled deeper into the sub-universe with the academicians after Li Shun pursued them, leaving the fleet lost but able to continue its research. Months later, Academician Li Youwei suspected that basic energy could be divided further, though his instruments could not confirm it.

• The Führer ordered two billion warships into the danger zone, and Li Shun's fleet followed Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong's Reapers into the sub-universe.
• Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong chose to abandon their relay devices and lead the fleet deeper into the sub-universe to evade Li Shun, despite the danger of being unable to return.
• The fleet lost contact with its relay devices, while the academicians studied how the sub-universe's rules changed farther from the entrance.
• Li Shun abandoned his pursuit, failed to damage the danger-zone exits, and left billions of warships to blockade them before returning to the insect zone.
• At Academician Zeng's request, the lost fleet traveled another five hundred light-years, and the academicians spent months gathering data.
• Academician Li Youwei told Academician Liu Bo that basic energy might be divisible into smaller components, but their microscope could not magnify it enough to verify the idea.

Academicians in a strange universe discussed why they could not use four-dimensional channels or contact their fleet, while Li Zhixiong and Chen Peng organized a National Day meal. Li Zhixiong noticed Academician Li Youwei switching chopsticks between hands, but Academician Li denied being able to use his left hand.

• Academician Zhou Xiaohua reported that four-dimensional channels and particle entanglement did not work in the region, and the academicians discussed the universe’s unusual rules and their difficulties returning to the fleet.
• The academicians identified the passage of time, loss of contact, return route, and defense system as problems they needed to investigate before their lifespans ran out.
• Li Zhixiong and Chen Peng brought food and liquor to mark National Day, and the group sang beneath the Chinese flag before sharing a meal.
• Academician Li Youwei switched his chopsticks to his left hand while eating, and Li Zhixiong noticed and joked about his ambidexterity.
• Academician Li Youwei denied being able to use his left hand and suggested Li Zhixiong’s eyes were playing tricks on him.