Recaps

Academician Liu Bo and the others discovered that the sub-universe mirrored their habitual thinking, making them unexpectedly skilled with their left hands. They theorized that it was a 3.5-dimensional space connecting universes, but still did not know how to leave it.

• Academician Li Youwei demonstrated that he could use his left hand skillfully, surprising his longtime colleagues.
• Academician Liu Bo concluded that the sub-universe was a mirror image, and the group found they could all use either hand with ease.
• Academician Zhou Xiaohua proposed that the universe existed in 3.5 dimensions, connecting different universes or allowing one universe to exist within another.
• Academician Liu Bo explained that mirrored directions had caused the released ship and signals to travel away from their intended paths, while relay equipment had helped the ship return.
• The group discussed the universe’s faster passage of time and the absence of detected particles, then agreed that more experiments were needed to understand it and find a way out.

The academicians celebrated a breakthrough in the mirror sub-universe, then struggled to determine its strange flow of time and structure. In the year 43800, Hu Yu learned that more Star Ring Alliance civilizations were advancing, and he approved sharing four-dimensional communication technology before the alliance faced what lay ahead.

• The academicians discussed how their discovery of a mirror universe might relate to left-handedness and toasted their breakthrough.
• The academicians began investigating time in the mirror sub-universe, where the Reaper had traveled for billions of years while only centuries passed in the main universe.
• In the year 43800, Hu Yu heard that the Zhalong Star Civilization and the Quaking Star Civilization had successfully tested space attacks, while the Sand Star Civilization and the South Star Civilization were expected to follow.
• Hu Yu learned that alliance civilizations were adopting human technology and culture, and he ordered the four-dimensional channel technology made public.
• Yang Fan reported that Yuan had arrived.

Hu Yu welcomed Great Cang Civilization’s leaders and explained that he intended to accelerate weaker civilizations’ development to strengthen the fight against the Insect Race. A Crystal envoy then warned him that rumors claiming Human Civilization had obtained the Matter River’s defensive system could draw pressure from civilizations across the galaxy.

• Hu Yu received His Majesty Great Cang, Yuan, and Yang, praised Great Cang’s rapid development, and promised it a resource-rich planet and scientific assistance.
• Hu Yu told Wen Zhonghua, Gao Jianchuan, Yang Fan, and the others that he planned to raise selected stellar-level civilizations into small star sector civilizations to help fight the Insect Race.
• Hu Yu explained that the civilizations would receive incomplete military technology and remain outside the Star Ring Alliance’s decision-making ranks.
• Gao Jianchuan reported that the Crystal Civilization’s envoy had arrived, and Hu Yu welcomed the envoy to Earth Four.
• The Crystal envoy warned Hu Yu that rumors said Human Civilization had obtained the Matter River’s defensive system and that other civilizations might pressure or probe them for it.

Wen Zhonghua and Hu Yu learned that fourteen Small Star Sector Advanced Civilizations might target humanity over rumors of a defensive system. Hu Yu mobilized the Star Ring Alliance for war, but preparations were interrupted when two Great Star Region warships appeared near Earth Four.

• Crystal Envoy warned Wen Zhonghua that fourteen Small Star Sector Advanced Civilizations might believe humanity had acquired a defensive system and attack.
• Wen Zhonghua and Hu Yu discussed the threat and agreed to prepare for a possible war, while ruling out the Fish Horse Star Civilization as the source of the rumors.
• Hu Yu ordered the Star Ring Alliance to produce and deliver combat supplies, and the North Star Civilization and Brilliant Star Civilization joined the Reaper fleet.
• Two enormous warships emerged from the fourth dimension near Earth Four, bypassing humanity's three-dimensional defenses.

Hu Yu learned that the Yun San and Heavenly Peak Civilizations had come to ask about the Matter River defense system and warn Human Civilization about approaching fleets. Heavenly Peak revealed that high-order insects had spread the news, and Hu Yu prepared for a war that would test humanity while greater civilizations watched.

• Hu Yu told Yun San and Heavenly Peak that Human Civilization had not obtained the Matter River defense system and that its scientists were missing in the danger zone.
• Yun San and Tian Feng warned Hu Yu that several fleets were heading toward Human Civilization, while promising to restrain Dark Moon and Rock Star and keep the fourth dimension stable.
• Heavenly Peak told Hu Yu that the insects had spread the news and explained that high-order insects were involved in a larger race against the galaxy’s civilizations.
• Hu Yu realized other civilizations wanted to test humanity, and Heavenly Peak said the small star sector fleets would arrive within a year.
• Hu Yu thanked Heavenly Peak and agreed to prepare for the coming battle.

Hu Yu prepared the Star Ring Alliance for an invasion by hiding its inhabitants, organizing the fleets, and assigning defenses as eight enemy fleets surrounded the base. The Falling Star Civilization demanded entry, but Hu Yu refused, leaving both sides poised for battle.

• Hu Yu had Ninety-Seven move the alliance’s inhabited planets beyond the galaxy and bring the Tree Race elders to support the defense.
• Hu Yu learned that eight fleets totaling about four hundred billion warships had gathered outside the Space Barrier, including forces from the Falling Star Civilization and the Flying Bear Civilization.
• Dongdong and the leaders of the alliance’s six civilizations placed their fleets under Hu Yu’s command, and Hu Yu assigned them to defend against the approaching forces.
• Hu Yu ordered the Twentieth Fleet to attack the Flying Bear Civilization with the planetary cannon, while the other fleets and Tree Race elders took defensive or mobile positions.
• The Falling Star Civilization demanded that the humans open a passage and surrender the defense system, but Hu Yu rejected its demands and challenged it to break through.

Hu Yu’s messages briefly sowed suspicion among the attacking civilizations, but their joint fleet eventually launched an assault on humanity’s defensive perimeter. After months of heavy fighting, both sides had suffered enormous losses, and the Reapers were struggling against the enemy’s powerful space attacks.

• Hu Yu sent messages accusing the Flying Bear Civilization of betraying its old allies, then followed up with an encrypted message intended to delay the attacking fleets.
• The Flying Bear Civilization and Falling Star Civilization argued with the other civilizations, but after half a month the eight fleets formed a joint force and attacked the defensive perimeter.
• Wen Zhonghua ordered four fleets to stop the joint fleet’s advance while four more fleets and two Stinger formations attacked the Flying Bear Civilization and Falling Star Civilization.
• The alliance fleet arrived and attacked the joint fleet, but the Reapers and the two advanced civilizations’ fleets suffered under powerful space weapons and Stinger attacks.
• After several months of fighting, the joint fleet had lost forty billion warships and the alliance fleet had lost twenty billion.

The human alliance opened a gap in its spatial defenses to lure the enemy fleet inside, then secretly closed the passage and prepared an ambush. The Falling Star Civilization and two allied fleets entered the empty region, unaware that human forces were watching them.

• The Flying Bear Civilization and Falling Star Civilization argued over their failed attack and decided to keep the human fleet pinned down while waiting for weapons from their base.
• Gao Jianchuan proposed opening a passage in the defense perimeter to lure the combined fleet inside, and the human commanders approved his plan.
• Gao Jianchuan cleared a circular passage through the spatial defenses, prompting the Falling Star Civilization to lead a 100-billion-warship force into it despite Flying Bear's warnings.
• The human alliance withdrew its ships, stars, and planets from the target region and secretly repositioned spatial defenses to close the passage and prepare an ambush.
• The human commanders watched as the enemy fleet entered the perimeter and found the region empty of human warships.

The human alliance used Stingers to destroy the two Small Star Sector Intermediate Civilization fleets supporting the Falling Star Civilization, but the Falling Star fleet’s tight formation remained impervious to attack. Academician Qin Yin proposed using energy spheres and Academician Zeng’s Space Density Theory to disrupt the space around the fleet.

• The alliance trapped the Falling Star combined fleet inside the defensive perimeter, where opposing space attacks created a stalemate and the Falling Star fleet could not receive supplies.
• Wen Zhonghua and Jianchuan sent 40 billion Stingers into the chaotic space, where their first attack waves struck the combined fleet.
• The Stingers destroyed more than 30 billion warships and, within five hours, wiped out the fleets of the two Small Star Sector Intermediate Civilizations.
• The Falling Star fleet held its formation against the alliance’s attacks, and Wen Zhonghua asked Yang Fan and then Qin Yin for a way to break it.
• Qin Yin proposed firing energy spheres into the space occupied by the Falling Star fleet to create an abnormal spatial density using Academician Zeng’s Space Density Theory.

Qin Yin devised a way to weaken the Falling Star Civilization’s spatial attacks, allowing the Alliance and Tree Race to destroy its invading fleet. The survivors then headed toward the Alliance’s hidden planets, forcing Hu Yu to split his forces between interception and moving the planets farther away.

• Qin Yin proposed firing energy spheres to raise spatial density, and Hu Yu ordered all nineteen Alliance fleets to attack as soon as the effect took hold.
• The energy spheres weakened the Falling Star Civilization’s spatial attacks, and the Alliance and Tree Race overwhelmed its 20 billion warships.
• The Tree Race elders crushed the enemy ships at close range, annihilating the invading fleet within a month without losing a regular Alliance warship.
• The remaining Falling Star Civilization forces argued with the Flying Bear Civilization and set out toward the edge of the galaxy to search for inhabited planets.
• Hu Yu ordered six fleets to intercept the survivors while leaders of the Sand Star Civilization and South Star Civilization moved the hidden planets farther away.

Hu Yu’s alliance fleet faced the joint fleet after the Flying Bear Civilization secretly crippled much of the defensive perimeter with corroding devices. The battle turned against the alliance when the Flying Bear Civilization unleashed miniature Space Shockwaves, destroying billions of warships and sending its own fleet tumbling in the resulting explosions.

• Hu Yu withdrew after losing five billion warships, while the Falling Star Civilization vanished from the galaxy and the alliance’s relocated planets remained hidden.
• A Flying Bear Civilization fleet secretly attacked the defensive perimeter, then its Space Shockwave corroded more than a third of the defense system and disabled satellite equipment.
• Hu Yu identified the corrosion as the work of devouring bacteria or nanobots and prepared for battle as the joint fleet breached the perimeter.
• Wen Zhonghua ordered the alliance fleets to engage the Flying Bear Civilization and its allies in a confined region of space.
• The Flying Bear Civilization launched miniature Space Shockwaves that destroyed more than five billion alliance warships, followed by another wave that destroyed over two billion more and sent Flying Bear warships tumbling away.

Hu Yu’s alliance fleet struggled against the Flying Bear Civilization until the Tree Race elders tied down some enemy warships, but the arrival of the Hydra Civilization threatened to end the battle. The Aquila and Xuan Star Civilizations then arrived as reinforcements, and the opposing fleets exchanged threats.

• Hu Yu ordered the Tree Race elders to enter the Flying Bear Civilization’s formation while the alliance fleet opened a path for them.
• The Tree Race elders restrained some Flying Bear Civilization warships, easing the pressure on the alliance fleet as the battle continued.
• A hundred-billion-ship fleet from the Hydra Civilization arrived without warning, and Hu Yu ordered the Tree Race elders to withdraw and prepared to retreat.
• The Aquila Civilization arrived with forty billion warships, followed by the Xuan Star Civilization with sixty billion, and Hu Yu welcomed both fleets as reinforcements.
• Hu Yu placed the Xuan Star and Aquila fleets under his command, while the Hydra Civilization demanded the defense system and another message threatened to destroy the Hydra fleet and race.

Luo Zhigao arrived with a 100-billion-ship fleet, and Hu Yu resumed command of the alliance forces against the Hydra and Flying Bear Civilizations. Both sides threatened the other’s inhabited planets, leaving Hu Yu waiting for the Hydra Civilization to decide whether to withdraw or keep fighting.

• Luo Zhigao reunited with Hu Yu and handed command of his fleet to Hu Yu and Wen Zhonghua.
• Hu Yu offered the Hydra and Flying Bear Civilizations a peaceful withdrawal, but the Hydra revealed another 20-billion-ship fleet near the humans’ inhabited planets.
• Ninety-Seven reported that the enemy had found the hidden human settlement, while Hu Yu refused to abandon its industrial planets or let the old patriarch risk a spatial transfer.
• The Xuan Star Civilization revealed that it had placed an antimatter star near the Hydra Civilization’s hidden settlement and threatened to detonate it if the humans’ planets were attacked.
• The Xuan Star Civilization also threatened the Flying Bear Civilization’s territory, and the Flying Bear Civilization announced its withdrawal.
• Hu Yu demanded that the Flying Bear Civilization leave behind a hundred intact warships, then asked the Hydra Civilization whether it would withdraw or continue fighting.

Yun San ended the battle after confirming that humanity had never possessed the defense system, and Hu Yu secured compensation and salvage from the defeated fleets. As Yun San prepared to leave, he discovered a hidden Mechanical Civilization warship, whose destruction left a threat of a coming “grand gift” from its lord.

• Dongdong defended humanity as the Carina Civilization and Hydra Civilization argued over the invasion, leaving the battlefield in a months-long stalemate.
• Yun San arrived, declared the defense-system rumor an insect-swarm trick, and ordered the Flying Bear Civilization to leave ten warships while the Hydra and Falling Star Civilizations faced possible expulsion from Alliance Space.
• The Flying Bear Civilization handed over ten intact warships, and Hu Yu recalled the 20th Fleet as the invading fleets withdrew from the now-safe inhabited planets.
• Yun San told Hu Yu that the warship debris could provide valuable materials and discussed the limits of humanity’s retaliation.
• As Yun San departed, his warship pulled a hidden Mechanical Civilization warship from the debris, and its mechanical occupant warned that its lord had prepared a grand gift before the ship exploded.

Hu Yu and Luo Zhigao reunited after nearly forty thousand years, and Luo Zhigao learned that Academician Zeng and his team were missing in the Matter River. The Xuan Star Civilization joined the Star Ring Alliance, which celebrated its expanded strength and divided captured warships among its members.

• Yun San warned Hu Yu that the Mechanical Civilization could rebuild quickly and told him to report any mechanical lord rather than attack it.
• Hu Yu and Luo Zhigao embraced with their compatriots after nearly forty thousand years apart.
• Hu Yu told Luo Zhigao that Academician Zeng and his team had entered the Matter River and lost contact.
• Hu Yu explained that the Xuan Star Civilization had become an ally, and Luo Zhigao welcomed its leader and praised the alliance between them.
• The Xuan Star Civilization formally joined the Star Ring Alliance, and Hu Yu distributed ten captured Flying Bear Civilization warships among the alliance's ten technological civilizations.
• Hu Yu introduced Number One and the other six leaders of the Aquila Civilization, who had grown into a small star sector intermediate civilization.

After Luo Zhigao’s fleet stopped at an apparently empty binary star system, invisible microorganisms began devouring people on Earth Three. The survivors began an emergency plan to freeze the creatures, while Luo Zhigao sacrificed his infected arm to stay alive and lead them.

• Luo Zhigao led thirty million warships and Earth Three toward the galactic center, then stopped at an empty binary star system to replenish supplies.
• After the fleet docked by an asteroid, invisible microorganisms attacked Earth Three and began devouring its people.
• Zheng Kaiping identified the creatures and explained that extreme cold could kill them, so Gao Zhengyang proposed slowing them with cold and building hibernation facilities.
• Luo Zhigao discovered that the creatures had eaten the skin from his right arm and plunged it into liquid nitrogen.
• Luo Zhigao broke off his frozen arm, and Gao Zhengyang bandaged him so he could continue leading the fleet.

After Stellar Worms devastated Earth Three, Luo Zhigao and the fleet preserved the survivors’ brains through liquid-nitrogen freezing and exposure to space, then destroyed the creatures and began rebuilding bodies. The chapter ended with Academician Zheng Kaiping’s team cloning cells to reconstruct more than three billion people, a process slowed by the scale of the work and the collapse of much of the fleet’s industry.

• Luo Zhigao ordered the injured to preserve their brains by freezing their bodies, and Li Wenfei helped organize the effort despite his own injuries.
• As hibernation boxes ran short, Zheng Kaiping proposed storing brains in space after removing all water from them and protecting them from radiation.
• Fleet members and medical crews processed the victims, sending billions of heads to cold warships and piling frozen torsos and limbs on Earth Three.
• Luo Zhigao moved the fleet to a surveyed planetary system, later thawed Earth Three after confirming it was free of Stellar Worms, and ordered the remains sent into the star for destruction.
• Zheng Kaiping’s scientists began cloning each victim’s cells from stored gene sequences to rebuild bodies around the preserved brains, but each reconstruction took at least a week while seventy percent of industry lay paralyzed.

After recovering from the Stellar Worm disaster, Luo Zhigao’s fleet discovered that it could not leave the space around the riddled asteroid and began investigating the Lost Zone. Five thousand years later, the fleet had advanced to a Small Star Sector Junior Civilization but remained trapped and missed its scheduled meeting with Hu Yu.

• Humanity revived every sleeping brain and restored the fleet, though more than a billion people had been devoured by the Stellar Worms.
• Academician Gao Zhengyang and Academician Zheng Kaiping traced the Stellar Worms to the riddled asteroid and studied how they survived and reproduced.
• After replenishing its supplies, Luo Zhigao led the fleet onward, but repeated journeys brought it back to the same binary star system.
• Gao Zhengyang mapped the Lost Zone and conducted extensive tests, finding that ships traveling beyond ten light-years returned near the binary stars.
• Five thousand years passed as the fleet developed into a Small Star Sector Junior Civilization, but Luo Zhigao still could not reach Hu Yu for their scheduled meeting.

After tens of thousands of years trapped in a warped, increasingly hot space, Gao Zhengyang led the fleet in detonating four stars to open a passage. The fleet escaped through the shrinking void with no losses.

• Gao Zhengyang told Luo Zhigao that space was looping through the fourth dimension and that the fleet’s only chance was to detonate four stars at their convergence point.
• As the trapped space grew denser and hotter, Gao Zhengyang arranged the four stars in a square while the fleet abandoned the planets and evacuated their supplies.
• The four stars collided and exploded, sending their energy into the space between them and creating a vast, calm void.
• Gao Zhengyang recognized the void as a passage and urged the fleet to race through before it closed.
• Luo Zhigao counted the ships and civilians after the last warship escaped, confirming there were no losses.

The fleet emerged into a dark region that Gao Zhengyang identified as the interior of a rapidly rotating black hole. Luo Zhigao and Li Wenfei prepared to calm the fleet while Gao Zhengyang studied how they could escape, with supplies limited to about two thousand years.

• Li Wenfei and Luo Zhigao saw that the fleet was surrounded by darkness and could not receive signals from outside.
• Gao Zhengyang concluded that the fleet had entered a Kerr or Kerr-Newman black hole and ordered the warships to remain still.
• Gao Zhengyang explained that the fleet might be in normal space near a ring singularity, though space could be compressed and the passage of time remained uncertain.
• Luo Zhigao asked how the fleet had entered the black hole and whether it could escape, but Gao Zhengyang admitted he did not yet know how to get out.
• Luo Zhigao told Li Wenfei to reassure the people aboard the warships, and he warned Gao Zhengyang that food and energy would last at most two thousand years.

Trapped in the black hole with dwindling supplies, Gao Zhengyang and the fleet searched for a way out and considered using the consciousness field to investigate the closed spacetime loop. Gao revealed that their only chance might be to send a person into the loop and detect the person's consciousness field.

• Gao Zhengyang surveyed the fleet's sealed region and found it spanned five million kilometers, with a closed spacetime loop surrounding it.
• Gao and the academicians failed to find a way through the loop, while the fleet's energy and supplies continued to dwindle.
• Jiang Moyan warned Gao that Luo Zhigao could not hold out much longer, and Gao proposed using the consciousness field to gather information beyond the loop.
• Gao explained that data from the black hole's inner regions might let the fleet open a spacetime passage and create a new timeline by returning to the past.
• Gao told Jiang that Zheng Kaiping's proposed method was to send someone into the closed spacetime loop, where their consciousness field might survive even as their vital signs ceased.

The fleet tested its members for the Consciousness Field strength needed to enter a black hole’s closed timelike curve, but everyone failed until injured Captain Xie Jinqiao volunteered. Xie’s result exceeded the required threshold, leaving him as a possible candidate for the dangerous mission.

• Gao Zhengyang told Luo Zhigao about the Consciousness Field test, and Luo decided to proceed because the fleet had fewer than two hundred years of energy left.
• Luo Zhigao invited volunteers to take the test, then narrowed eligibility to people with relevant knowledge after too many applied.
• Luo and other fleet leaders tested negative, and the fleet-wide search found no one who met the threshold.
• Xie Jinqiao left the hospital despite his recent heart reconstruction and asked to be tested.
• Xie’s helmet repeatedly showed green, and Zheng Kaiping confirmed that his Consciousness Field strength was at least eighty, well above the passing score of sixty.

Xie Jinqiao sacrificed himself by entering the Closed Spacetime Curve, where his Consciousness Field survived and began sending information to the fleet. After more than a hundred years for the fleet and billions of years for Xie Jinqiao, he warned them that he had avoided a strange ring that might be their only hope of escape.

• Xie Jinqiao volunteered to enter the Closed Spacetime Curve, and Luo Zhigao sent him off in a shuttle.
• After thirty days without news, Zheng Kaiping detected Xie Jinqiao's message saying he was alive in a strange place.
• Luo Zhigao learned that Xie Jinqiao's Consciousness Field could not leave the curve without dissipating, and ordered Zheng Kaiping to find a way to rescue him.
• Xie Jinqiao sent data about the curve's strange spatial properties, then later reported that he had seen time and might know a way to free the fleet.
• After another hundred years, Xie Jinqiao sent a long message saying billions of years had passed for him and that he had avoided a strange ring so the fleet would retain its last hope.

Xie Jinqiao used his weakened consciousness field to move the fleet out of the black hole, leaving himself behind. The survivors found themselves in a separate timeline, and Gao Zhengyang and Jiang Moyan began investigating how to rejoin the greater universe’s timeline.

• Luo Zhigao ordered the fleet reduced to one million warships and positioned near the closed spacetime curve while they waited for Xie Jinqiao.
• Xie Jinqiao sent a farewell message and spread his consciousness field across the fleet, transporting everyone out of the black hole.
• Luo Zhigao and Gao Zhengyang discussed the possibility of returning someday to rescue Xie Jinqiao, then discovered the fleet was in a different timeline from the greater universe.
• Gao Zhengyang went to the laboratory, where Jiang Moyan proposed synchronizing the fleet’s time with the greater universe to rejoin its timeline.

Luo Zhigao explained how his fleet spent fifty thousand years on a meaningless timeline, built a hundred billion ships, and returned to the universe through a black hole. After reuniting with Hu Yu, he learned the fleet had arrived amid a conflict over the Matter River’s defense system and prepared to continue the leader’s mission.

• Luo Zhigao’s fleet found the galaxy empty, settled on a planet, and expanded through destructive mining for fifty thousand years.
• Academician Gao Zhengyang and Academician Jiang Moyan devised a way for the fleet to return to the normal timeline through a black hole’s infinite redshift surface.
• Luo Zhigao’s fleet emerged from the black hole and received a message claiming humanity had obtained the Matter River’s defense system, along with coordinates that likely led to Hu Yu.
• Luo Zhigao discovered the Hydra Civilization’s fleet near the coordinates, concealed his own fleet, and sent ships to investigate.
• Luo Zhigao told Hu Yu and the others how his fleet had been trapped on the meaningless timeline and returned through the black hole.
• Hu Yu and Luo Zhigao agreed to share their spatial information and technology, unite against humanity’s enemies, and continue the leader’s mission.