Recaps

Academician Zeng explained how the fleet could use four-dimensional passages to build a resilient communications network, while Academician Xiao described cloning and engineered creatures intended to help prepare for the Insect Race. The discussion ended when Wen Zhonghua spotted a giant cyan ox carrying an angry old man just outside the porthole.

• Academician Zeng explained that energized entangled particles could form four-dimensional passages and that the fleet could use them to build a relay network between warships.
• Academician Zeng described how ships could shut down unused passages and warned that destroying a passage released enormous energy.
• Academician Xiao revealed that the biological ship had resumed cloning and created terrifying engineered creatures in preparation for possible conflict with the Insect Race.
• Wen Zhonghua saw a giant cyan ox and a white-haired old man outside the porthole, startling everyone in the room.

The fleet encountered Zhou Dao, an ancient human who had survived for millennia after aliens abducted him and who reached them aboard a biomechanical black bull. Learning that Earth and the Sun were gone, he mourned his lost home, then agreed to stay with the fleet for a day in exchange for food while they studied his bull.

• Hu Yu let the old man and his black bull enter the ship after the crew saw him waiting outside in the vacuum.
• The old man ate the crew’s food, introduced himself as Zhou Dao, and explained that he survived in space using a force field and a biomechanical bull.
• Zhou Dao recounted how aliens abducted him after he left Jiayuguan Pass, and how he escaped about a thousand years ago aboard the bull he built.
• The crew told Zhou Dao that the Sun had been destroyed and Earth was lost; he wept, then accepted the news and recovered.
• Hu Yu invited Zhou Dao to stay with the fleet, and Zhou Dao agreed to spend a day there while the crew studied his bull and Wen Zhonghua served him food.

Daozi entertained the fleet with stories about the Insect Race before revealing that a hostile civilization was pursuing him and that a damaged insect-deployment bubble lay nearby. After he left, Hu Yu and the others assessed the threat and their route toward the Insect Race frontier.

• Wen Zhonghua treated Daozi to a feast and learned that stage-twenty-five insects could travel and attack at warp speeds.
• Daozi described escaping a massive insect swarm and refused to explain what he knew about the Abyss.
• Daozi warned the fleet that a late-stage star system-level civilization was pursuing him and revealed the location of a damaged four-dimensional space bubble before departing on the Azure Ox.
• The academicians reported that studying the Azure Ox had yielded reserve technologies roughly equivalent to half the Sand Python Civilization's technological wealth.
• Hu Yu estimated the pursuers were at least a thousand light-years away and suspected Daozi had stolen something important or secret information from them.

Hu Yu’s fleet built a four-dimensional communications network and searched for the bubble Daozi had mentioned, but the search failed as an enemy fleet closed in. With the fleet facing likely destruction, Hu Yu prepared to preserve its people and civilization, while Academician Zeng proposed one last experiment.

• Academician Xiao Yi and Academician Zeng Zhaoyuan argued that Daozi had learned a dangerous secret and that the fleet should seek the four-dimensional space bubble he had described.
• Hu Yu ordered a four-dimensional communications network completed and sent Hunter-Killers to search nearby space while the Deep Blue Fleet stayed hidden.
• The network was completed, improving fleet communications, but five hundred thousand Hunter-Killers and hundreds of millions of satellites failed to find the bubble over several years.
• A distant satellite detected five enormous warships from the star system-level civilization pursuing Daozi, and Hu Yu prepared the fleet’s antimatter defenses.
• Hu Yu refused to recall the distant search fleet and ordered it to scatter as a reserve, while preparing to evacuate families, scientists, and technicians if the Deep Blue Fleet was destroyed.
• Academician Zeng refused to evacuate and asked for the fleet’s cooperation in a final experiment that could let them survive the approaching enemy.

With the Deep Blue Fleet under pursuit, Academician Zeng used gravitational waves to locate a hidden four-dimensional space bubble that could offer refuge. Hu Yu and Zeng Zhaoyuan reached the bubble and prepared to enter the fourth dimension, leaving the fleet’s next move uncertain.

• Academician Xiao agreed to join the plan, and Academician Zeng proposed using hundreds of thousands of Hunter-Killers to generate gravitational waves and detect a four-dimensional space bubble.
• The Hunter-Killers spread through space while five enemy warships hunted them, and the Deep Blue remained hidden as the fleet waited for the waves to reveal an anomaly.
• Scientists confirmed anomalous gravitational-wave data about two light-days from the science ship, and Zeng suspected Mr. Daozi had brought or created the bubble.
• Hu Yu, Zeng Zhaoyuan, and several physicists traveled to the anomalous location, where their ship received distorted gravitational-wave data and confirmed it was inside the bubble.
• Zeng explained that the bubble’s three-dimensional portion had merged with ordinary space and ordered everyone to remain still after activating the warp engine to enter the fourth dimension.

Humanity’s first entry into four-dimensional space gave Academician Zeng’s team data but left the Deep Blue Fleet needing a way to survive there safely. As the fleet hid from five alien warships and the aliens’ commanders questioned their head of state’s rule, Liu Bo proposed pulling a stable region of three-dimensional space into the bubble.

• Hu Yu and Academician Zeng’s crew entered four-dimensional space, observed its strange effects, collected data, and returned to the greater universe.
• Hu Yu ordered the Deep Blue Fleet and nearby Hunter-Killers to regroup, but Yang Fan and Chen Peng kept 300,000 Hunter-Killers scattered to conceal the Deep Blue’s location.
• Academician Zeng’s team studied how humans could live in the space bubble without being harmed by its fourth dimension.
• The five alien warship commanders discussed their search for the human civilization and rumors that their head of state had purged officials and expanded the fleet.
• Liu Bo proposed pulling a stable region of three-dimensional space from the greater universe into the bubble so the Deep Blue Fleet could live there.

Academician Liu Bo’s space-stretching experiment allowed the Deep Blue Fleet to hide safely inside a four-dimensional space bubble while its Hunter-Killers escaped their pursuers. As the fleet later headed for Alpha Centauri, two engineering ships arrived first, surveyed its planets, and began preparing the system for development.

• Academician Liu Bo and Academician Zeng successfully tested a sphere of Hunter-Killers that stretched three-dimensional space into the four-dimensional bubble without harming the spacecraft inside.
• Hu Yu moved the Deep Blue ships and their crews into the protected sphere, while Yang Fan and Chen Peng split the remaining Hunter-Killers into two groups to evade the aliens.
• The scattered Hunter-Killers eventually lost their pursuers, regrouped more than 700 light-years apart, and continued their long detour toward Alpha Centauri.
• Two engineering ships reached Alpha Centauri ahead of the fleet, confirmed that its third star had two rocky planets, and landed on the first planet.
• The engineering ships surveyed the planet’s mineral reserves and sent their findings to the Deep Blue Fleet, whose scientists used them to plan the system’s development.

The engineering ships built underground cities on Alpha Centauri’s first planet, and the Hunter-Killer Fleet and Deep Blue Fleet arrived to take shelter there. After welcoming the fleets and hearing reports from their commanders, Hu Yu convened a meeting to gather requirements for a new warship design.

• The engineering ships excavated and equipped underground spaces while the first planet’s surface grew increasingly hot.
• Chen Peng and Yang Fan’s fleet of 300,000 Hunter-Killers arrived, and its crew joined the engineering teams in expanding the underground cities.
• Hu Yu welcomed the Deep Blue Fleet and honored the engineering-ship personnel for preparing the settlements.
• Yang Fan and Chen Peng reported on their fleet’s 700-light-year detour and their discovery of one planetary-level civilization, which Hu Yu ordered them not to disturb.
• Hu Yu gathered the fleet commanders and Academician Zeng in Science City to discuss a new warship, and the commanders debated armor, size, weapons, maneuverability, and escape systems.

Academician Zeng unveiled the Stealth Killer, a faster, more durable warship designed for mass production and mostly remote operation, while the fleet planned to rebuild its industry and dismantle the Hunter-Killers. The chapter ended with Academician Xiao requesting an isolated underground city for a secret biological project and preparing to show Hu Yu its latest product.

• Wen Zhonghua gathered frontline suggestions about the Hunter-Killer, and Academician Zeng presented the Stealth Killer’s design, weapons, spatial-distortion defenses, and improved holographic technology.
• Academician Zeng explained that the Deep Blue would be upgraded and the Hunter-Killers dismantled to provide materials for the new fleet.
• Academician Zeng outlined plans to build 30 million modular Stealth Killers over several decades, with most ships unmanned and piloted remotely by operators on the Deep Blue.
• Hu Yu visited the biological ship, where Academician Xiao asked him to arrange a large, isolated underground city for the biologists.
• Academician Xiao invited Hu Yu to see the biological ship’s new product.

Hu Yu approved Academician Xiao’s plan to cultivate a biological legion while the fleet completed its Stealth Killer fleet and prepared to search for a habitable planet. A silver spacecraft that had secretly watched the fleet traveled to Tau Ceti, where its occupant summoned Ma Meng.

• Academician Xiao showed Hu Yu a first-generation interstellar biological warrior and explained its abilities, limits, and production process.
• Academician Xiao described Little Crab, a parasitic organism designed to control biological warriors and destroy them if they threatened humanity.
• Hu Yu approved cultivating an initial hundred million biological warriors and releasing strategic reserves to support production.
• The fleet completed twenty million Stealth Killers ahead of schedule, and Hu Yu hoped to find a habitable planet for the people to settle.
• A silver spacecraft that had watched the fleet leave Alpha Centauri and travel to Tau Ceti, where its occupant called for Ma Meng.

Ma Meng, leader of the Sand Python Civilization, resisted the Patrol’s order to attack humanity early and tried to turn his fleet against the Patrol. After the Patrol destroyed thousands of Sand Python warships, Ma Meng surrendered, and the Patrol explained why the Sand Pythons still had a chance against humanity.

• The Patrol confronted Ma Meng about the Sand Python Civilization’s slow development and ordered him to attack humanity before the 200-year deadline.
• Ma Meng recalled how he had seized leadership and planned to abandon the mission and escape Tau Ceti once his fleet was large enough.
• Ma Meng secretly ordered his fleet to move against the Patrol, but the Patrol’s silver ship destroyed thousands of warships before the Sand Pythons stopped resisting.
• Ma Meng begged for mercy and promised that the Sand Python fleet would attack humanity immediately.
• The Patrol warned that humanity’s fleet had reached mid star system-level strength, but argued that its small warships left the Sand Pythons a chance to win.

The Sand Python Civilization sent a fleet towing Tau Ceti toward humanity, prompting Hu Yu and Wen Zhonghua to prepare for an attack at Alpha Centauri. The Stealth Killers moved the first planet to safety and advanced to confront the approaching fleet, leaving both sides poised for battle.

• Ma Meng agreed to lead the Sand Python fleet against humanity after the Patrol promised him technology if he succeeded.
• The Sand Python fleet assembled at Tau Ceti and dragged the star toward Alpha Centauri, sending the system’s planets flying from their orbits.
• Wen Zhonghua received a report that a fleet towing a star was twenty light-years away, and Hu Yu ordered the Stealth Killers into space.
• Academician Zeng recognized similarities between the enemy ships and the old Sand Python warships, while Hu Yu concluded the star was being brought for war.
• Hu Yu ordered the Stealth Killers to move the first planet behind Alpha Centauri’s first star, then sent the fleet forward to meet the enemy.
• The Stealth Killers dropped out of warp less than a light-day from the Sand Python fleet and waited for the order to attack.

Humanity recognized Tau Ceti in the Sand Python fleet and learned that a more powerful civilization had tasked the Sand Pythons with destroying them. Hu Yu ordered a full attack and planned to destroy both Tau Ceti and Alpha Centauri's third star, while Ma Meng's fleet prepared to retaliate.

• Academician Zeng identified the star accompanying the Sand Python fleet as Tau Ceti, and Ma Meng demanded humanity surrender or face destruction.
• Hu Yu and the others suspected a small star sector civilization was backing the Sand Pythons, possibly because of conflicts involving the leader's or Minister Luo's fleet.
• Hu Yu ordered Wen Zhonghua to attack and directed the fleet to draw the battle toward Alpha Centauri's third star, intending to destroy it after the Sand Pythons blew up Tau Ceti.
• Humanity launched antimatter bombs at the Sand Python fleet, and Ma Meng ordered his ships to fight back.
• Antimatter bombs and gravity distortions crossed the light-day gap, with many bombs thrown off course and detonating amid the warped space.

Humanity’s Stealth Killers battled the Sand Python fleet with antimatter bombs, lasers, and antiphoton beams, gradually gaining the advantage as the Sand Python warships suffered heavy losses. Ma Meng ordered Tau Ceti detonated, while Old Hu prepared to answer by detonating Alpha Centauri’s third star.

• Human and Sand Python warships exchanged antimatter bombs and laser fire, destroying ships on both sides.
• Ma Meng ordered the Sand Python fleet to release its remaining antimatter bombs, forcing the Stealth Killers to evade while they attacked.
• Wen Zhonghua ordered the Stealth Killers to use antiphoton weapons against the tracking bombs, destroying many of them at the cost of numerous Stealth Killers.
• The Stealth Killers targeted weak points on Sand Python warships, and the battle turned against the Sand Python fleet as its losses mounted.
• Old Hu said humanity would detonate Alpha Centauri’s third star if the Sand Python fleet detonated Tau Ceti or the battle moved closer to it.
• Ma Meng, enraged by the loss of half his warships, ordered Tau Ceti detonated.

After detonating Tau Ceti, the Sand Python fleet was destroyed by humanity’s explosion of Alpha Centauri’s third star, while the human fleet also suffered heavy losses. The Patrol then exterminated the Sand Python civilians, and Hu Yu ordered the surviving human ships to leave the region and seek a new home.

• Ma Meng ordered a hidden Sand Python warship to detonate Tau Ceti, devastating both fleets and destroying much of the human Stealth Killer fleet.
• Humanity detonated Alpha Centauri’s third star, and its energy tide wiped out the remaining Sand Python warships.
• Hu Yu mourned Tau Ceti and sent surviving Stealth Killers to search the region for Sand Python remnants.
• The Patrol found the Sand Python civilian ships and destroyed them, ending the Sand Python Civilization.
• After searches found no surviving Sand Python forces, Hu Yu ordered the human fleet to return and prepare to leave the region.

Hu Yu agreed to divert the fleet to warn a planetary civilization that could be endangered by radiation from the Tau Ceti and Alpha Centauri explosions. After reaching the system and assessing the inhabited second planet, Hu Yu prepared to land there with several academicians.

• Yang Fan reminded Hu Yu that a planetary civilization would face a radiation storm in about three hundred years and proposed warning it.
• Hu Yu approved the detour and said the fleet would help the civilization if it deserved saving.
• The fleet left Alpha Centauri and reached the three-planet system after three years of travel.
• Hu Yu and Yang Fan reviewed survey data showing that the second planet could support life but had unsuitable air and unknown microorganisms.
• Hu Yu decided to land on the second planet with a small group despite Yang Fan's safety concerns.

Hu Yu and the scientists landed on Snow Star and encountered its rabbit-like inhabitants, whose chieftain welcomed them and asked why they had come. The chapter ended as Hu Yu prepared to answer the Snow Tribe’s questions.

• Hu Yu and the scientists landed their ship in a lake near a strange building to avoid damaging it.
• Hu Yu and his companions discovered that the planet’s civilized inhabitants were upright-walking rabbit-like creatures.
• A crowd of Snow Tribe members gathered around the visitors, and their chieftain arrived in a wooden cart.
• Academician Zeng’s instrument failed to translate the rabbits’ speech because it lacked enough varied data.
• The chieftain spoke understandable human language, welcomed the visitors to Snow Star, and asked where they came from and why they had arrived.

Hu Yu and Academicians Zeng and Xiao met the Snow Tribe chief, who had learned their language and welcomed them beneath Snow Star’s giant tree. Hu Yu warned the chief about shock waves from two detonated stars, and the chief revealed that the Snow Tribe had analyzed the humans and trusted them.

• The Snow Tribe chief greeted Hu Yu and explained that he had learned the humans’ language by processing data.
• Hu Yu, Academician Zeng, and Academician Xiao followed the chief to a giant tree and discussed their civilizations.
• Hu Yu recounted humanity’s battles with a hostile civilization and warned that shock waves from two exploding stars would reach Snow Star in a little over 300 years.
• Hu Yu told the chief that the human fleet was in orbit around the third planet and urged the Snow Tribe not to fear it.
• The chief said the Snow Tribe had analyzed the humans’ behavior and history, found their goodwill nearly certain, and trusted them.

The Snow Tribe chief explained that his people were a Planetary-Level Civilization on Snow Star, yet had once dominated the Milky Way and knew about humanity’s distant actions. He began recounting the Snow Tribe’s rise, its disastrous defeat in Andromeda, and the survivors’ flight to Sextans.

• Academician Zeng asked how the Snow Tribe knew about humanity’s actions on Tau Ceti and Alpha Centauri, and the chief said his people had once surpassed Great Star Region Civilization despite their current planetary-level technology.
• The chief described how the Snow Tribe emerged on ancient Snow Star and used its rapid thinking to develop quickly amid the early universe’s violent conditions.
• The Snow Tribe’s first chief unified the Milky Way after defeating millions of advanced civilizations, then made the disastrous decision to invade Andromeda.
• The Snow Tribe’s fleet suffered a crushing defeat in Andromeda, and oppressed Milky Way civilizations turned against the weakened Snow Tribe.
• The first chief died after failing to save his people, and the second chief led the remaining millions to escape to Sextans.

The Snow Tribe patriarch told Hu Yu and the others how his people fled to Sextans, shed most of their technology, and returned to the Milky Way five billion years ago. After revealing that he had secretly observed their recent battles, he reflected on the Milky Way’s lost civilizations, and Hu Yu asked whether he knew about the Insect Race.

• The patriarch recounted how the Snow Tribe escaped to Sextans, genetically removed most selfish desires, and lived peacefully until the second patriarch urged them to return to the Milky Way.
• The patriarch said he led the Snow Tribe back five billion years ago, found Snow Star still intact, and hid their ships and technology there.
• Academician Xiao asked about the patriarch’s age, and he explained that he was five billion years old and nearing the end of his life.
• Hu Yu asked how the Snow Tribe knew about Tau Ceti and Alpha Centauri, and the patriarch described their ancient warships and hidden high-dimensional observation channels.
• Hu Yu admitted that he had considered taking the Snow Tribe’s technology, and the patriarch said controlling selfish desires was better than eliminating them.
• The patriarch described the Milky Way’s decline after the Snow Tribe left, and Hu Yu asked whether he knew about the Insect Race.

Hu Yu urged the Snow Tribe's patriarch to abandon the past and pursue technological development, then prepared to leave Snow Star with a gift of advanced technology and a warning about outside interference in the war with the Sand Python Civilization. The patriarch introduced Yan Xue as a candidate to lead the Snow Tribe, leaving Hu Yu awkwardly answering the young rabbit's question about how to address him.

• Hu Yu urged the Snow Tribe's patriarch to look toward the future and lead his people back to technological development.
• The patriarch agreed to gather the Snow Tribe to discuss development and offered humanity the grand unified model of the four fundamental forces.
• The patriarch warned Hu Yu that an unknown Small Star Sector Civilization was secretly involved in humanity's war with the Sand Python Civilization.
• Hu Yu offered the Snow Tribe human music and genetic technology, but the patriarch declined the life-extension offer and spoke of his approaching death.
• The patriarch introduced Yan Xue as a candidate for the next patriarch, and Yan Xue asked Hu Yu what he should call him.

Hu Yu said farewell to the Snow Tribe after giving Yan Xue a surviving J-90 fighter as a gift, then led the fleet back into its search for a planet to terraform. After twenty years and more than a thousand surveyed planets, the fleet received another possible lead that still needed investigation.

• Hu Yu accepted Yan Xue as his little brother but declined to keep the fleet on Snow Star.
• Hu Yu gave Yan Xue a J-90 fighter and departed with the fleet for the third planet.
• Hu Yu and the fleet continued searching for a planet with an atmosphere, a magnetic field, and Earth-like gravity.
• After surveying more than a thousand rocky planets over twenty years, the fleet detected a possible target twenty light-years ahead and prepared to investigate.

The Deep Blue Fleet discovered a planet overrun by high-tier insects and stayed behind to study and attack the swarm. Hu Yu left most of the fleet moving onward while preparing a battle, and the biologists continued investigating how the insects had reached the system without a First-Tier Mother Insect in sight.

• A survey ship found a planet and its surrounding space completely covered by giant insects, including creatures as high as the sixteenth tier.
• Hu Yu ordered the Deep Blue Fleet and eight million Stealth Killers to bypass the system, leaving two million Stealth Hunter-Killers and the biology ship behind.
• Ten Stealth Killers deployed disguised satellites to gather insect data and check nearby star systems for signs of the swarm.
• Biologists aboard the biology ship identified high-tier insects and asked Hu Yu for live specimens; Hu Yu promised to leave some after the attack.
• Hu Yu decided to attack the swarm for combat experience and warned that the fleet would destroy the star if the insects proved too powerful.
• Academician Xiao noted that the satellites had found no First-Tier Mother Insect and asked whether the swarm had arrived in four-dimensional space bubbles.

Hu Yu and the others discussed how the Insect Race evolved and deployed insects through higher-dimensional channels, and how humanity’s high-energy experiments may have attracted the swarm. An academician proposed testing the fleet’s biological warriors, and the general agreed to go see them, though they were still small and needed food to grow.

• Hu Yu said the team could not determine whether the Insect Race had evolved mother insects or transported higher-tier insects directly.
• Hu Yu and the general considered whether the alien civilization had drawn mother insects by piercing space and whether the insects had consumed the remaining swarm.
• The chapter explained how high-energy experiments opened channels to the fourth dimension, allowing the Insect Race to locate and invade civilizations.
• The account described how mother insects and higher-tier insects were deployed differently and recalled humanity’s battles with sixth-tier insects.
• An academician proposed sending the biological warriors into combat, and the general agreed to inspect them despite their small size and need for food.

Hu Yu inspected Academician Xiao’s miniature biological warriors and approved their deployment against the insect swarm. The warriors infiltrated the swarm, triggering widespread fighting among the insects and killing more than a billion within an hour.

• Hu Yu toured the Deep Blue and saw the fist-sized biological warriors, which Academician Xiao demonstrated were docile around their handlers.
• Academician Xiao released the warriors from their chambers, and they swarmed over the biologists before forming orderly ranks.
• Hu Yu agreed to test the warriors, and a thousand Stealth Killers transported them toward the insect swarm.
• The Stealth Killers launched the hundred million warriors into the swarm, where they entered giant insects and attacked them from within.
• The insects fell into chaos and killed one another as the biological warriors slew more than a billion with almost no losses.