Recaps

Academician Xiao and the fleet studied captured Insect Race worms while testing biological warriors, whose early success against weak worms gave way to heavy losses against a powerful worm king. The fleet decided to end the experiment, collect more specimens, and catch up with the Deep Blue as another fleet approached Hu Yu.

• Stealth Killers captured a giant centipede-like worm, and Academician Xiao and the biologists dissected it to study its organs and anatomy.
• Hu Yu left the dissection after watching the worm's involuntary struggles.
• After more than three months, the grown biological warriors fought the Insect Race, killing billions of weak worms but losing over fifty million warriors to the worm king and its swarm.
• Academician Xiao told the general that the test had provided the data needed to redesign the next generation of biological warriors.
• The general ordered the Stealth Killers to wipe out the swarms and capture worms, while a fleet of five thousand warships advanced toward Hu Yu from one light-year away.

Hu Yu’s forces launched a fleet assault on the insect swarm, beginning the first major battle between human warships and the Insect Race. Lieutenant General Li Zhixiong directed the Stealth Killers from the Deep Blue as both sides suffered heavy losses, and the fight remained underway.

• Two hundred thousand Stealth Killers attacked the planet with antimatter bombs, killing millions of insects but barely reducing the swarm’s combat strength.
• The insect king organized the swarm’s counterattack, and the insects engulfed the Stealth Killers with overwhelming numbers.
• Lieutenant General Li Zhixiong commanded the battle remotely from the Deep Blue, dividing the battlefield into 360 sectors and issuing orders to the fleet.
• The insects attacked ships with claws, fangs, explosive energy spheres, and disabling paste spheres, inflicting substantial losses on the Stealth Killers.
• A Stealth Killer operator restarted the ship’s engine as an insect struck it, burning away the insect’s claw and part of its head.

Li Zhixiong’s fleet turned the battle against the insect swarm, then captured the insect king alive—though the king was left barely breathing. Academician Xiao welcomed the prize for study as Hu Yu teased Li Zhixiong about his botched capture.

• Li Zhixiong told Hu Yu the Stealth Killers were winning and proposed grouping them to attack the remaining high-tier insects.
• Hu Yu asked Li Zhixiong to capture the insect king alive, and Li Zhixiong promised to bring one back.
• The Stealth Killers surrounded and killed high-tier insects while two nuclear-bomb-loaded ships exploded beside the insect king, badly wounding it.
• The insect king’s defeat sent the swarm fleeing, and a Stealth Killer bound it with an alloy cable and dragged it toward a biological ship.
• Academician Xiao and the biologists celebrated the capture, while Hu Yu criticized Li Zhixiong for delivering the king near death.

Hu Yu confronted a five-thousand-ship fleet from the Wind Star Civilization, which revealed that it knew of humanity and might resume a plan to exterminate it. He defeated the fleet with the Stealth Killers, then discovered its crew had been killed with shocking ease by gravity bombs.

• Hu Yu ordered Li Zhixiong to escort the biology ship away while he stayed behind with 1.9 million Stealth Killers to face the arriving fleet.
• Hu Yu learned that the newcomers were the Wind Star Civilization, an advanced civilization that had once been ordered to hunt humanity and might now restart its extermination plan.
• Hu Yu encircled the Wind Star fleet before it could escape and attacked with gravity bombs, while the enemy ships barely responded.
• Hu Yu halted the attack after the five thousand ships fell silent and sent reconnaissance satellites to inspect them.
• Hu Yu discovered that the beings inside the Wind Star ships had been reduced to mangled flesh, and realized gravity bombs had destroyed the fleet far more easily than expected.

Hu Yu discovered that the Wind Star Civilization’s ships were transports carrying frozen intelligent beings as food for the Insect Race, and concluded the Wind Star People could not control the swarm. He planned to investigate Wind Star using remotely controlled clones and prepare to conquer the civilization.

• A landing robot entered a Wind Star ship and revealed that its interior was packed with frozen creatures, most of them members of civilizations, explaining the ships’ weak weapons and poor maneuverability.
• The science ship connected to a ship’s control system, opened its control room, and identified the dead Wind Star People as small, slender beings with long hair and six limbs.
• Hu Yu learned from the navigation charts that the Wind Star fleet had traveled four thousand light-years to feed the Insect Race, and suspected the Wind Star People could not control it.
• Hu Yu ordered Academician Zeng to decipher the Wind Star People’s language and records, and Academician Xiao to recreate their bodies for remote control.
• Hu Yu told the others he would investigate Wind Star through controlled clones and ordered Zhonghua to find planetary systems for preparations to seize the Wind Star Civilization.

Hu Yu and his fleet cleared the Wind Star warships, collected samples, and prepared cloned Wind Star People to infiltrate the repaired fleet. After confirming that the fleet had sent no message home, Hu Yu set out to follow its route and investigate the Wind Star civilization while Wen Zhonghua prepared a new base.

• Hu Yu sent robots to guide five thousand Wind Star warships into a star, where their frozen occupants were burned, while biologists collected samples from the remaining Wind Star People.
• Academician Zeng arrived and led scientists in searching the warships for emergency communication systems; they found no evidence that the fleet had contacted its homeworld.
• Hu Yu practiced controlling a cloned Wind Star person and learned that the clones needed monthly medication and that their controllers should speak sparingly to avoid suspicion.
• Hu Yu and Academician Xiao discussed the fleet's low rank and suspected that the Wind Star People had hunted Mr. Daozi and humanity because he had stolen information about their feeding the Insect Race.
• Wen Zhonghua reported finding a suitable star system and began surveying it as Hu Yu ordered preparations for a base and new warships.
• Hu Yu and more than fifty thousand selected people took control of the repaired Wind Star warships near Insect Star, imitating their former crews and routines.

Hu Yu’s fleet reached JD3 and discussed giving its people a planetary home before attacking the Wind Star Civilization. As the infiltration fleet neared Wind Star territory, it discovered extensive surveillance and defenses, making a sneak attack appear nearly impossible.

• Hu Yu and the fleet returned to JD3, where he asked Academician Zeng to assess whether one of its six planets could be terraformed for the people.
• Academician Zeng identified planet six as a possible candidate but warned that its high gravity and the risk of discovery could force the fleet to evacuate.
• Hu Yu said the fleet would attack the Wind Star Civilization, acquire its technology, settle its people, and eventually seek out the leader and Minister Luo Zhigao.
• Hu Yu watched Wind Star satellites relay messages by pulling distant space close, and considered the possible military uses of the technology.
• As the fleet approached Wind Star territory, Hu Yu found surveillance satellites and hidden fleets along the route, then saw the warships switch to conventional engines one light-year from the territory.
• Hu Yu observed dense patrol fleets, gun platforms, and mines guarding Wind Star territory, and concluded that a quiet large-scale infiltration was nearly impossible.

Hu Yu’s fleet reached the Wind Star Civilization’s densely populated core territory, where he used cloned Wind Star People to gather intelligence while posing as the transport captain Si Luo. He left the dock after secretly agreeing to help Feng Jun obtain specialties from planet 97 in exchange for half the profits.

• Hu Yu saw the Wind Star Civilization’s vast defenses and more than a thousand engineered life-bearing planets as his fleet approached its home star.
• The Wind Star fleet docked at a space-based facility, and Hu Yu sent his cloned crew leaders inside while the ordinary crew remained aboard.
• Hu Yu, posing as Si Luo, talked with Feng Jun and used gathered information to convincingly imitate Si Luo’s habits.
• Si Luo told Feng Jun that his fleet had been assigned three hundred mission planets and had visited ten planets on each of two trips.
• Feng Jun asked Si Luo to bring back specialties from planet 97, and they agreed to split the profits equally.

Hu Yu learned that the Wind Star Civilization had enslaved more than a thousand lower-level civilizations to breed creatures for insect swarms. He continued the transport mission with Feng Jun’s hair, planning to use the clone and his connections to gather more information later.

• Hu Yu and the science ship pieced together the Wind Star People’s history and learned that their leader had ordered the capture of more than a thousand life-bearing planets.
• The Wind Star People stripped the captured civilizations of technology and forced their inhabitants to breed creatures, including sapient beings, for the insect swarms.
• Hu Yu learned that the Wind Star People had suppressed opposition to the breeding program and lived apart from the breeding bases on planets in the fourth orbit.
• Hu Yu abandoned plans to investigate the Wind Star People’s home planets to avoid raising suspicion and decided to complete his fleet’s mission.
• Hu Yu kept one of Feng Jun’s long hairs to serve as a way to observe the dock and planned to pass it to a biologist on the way to Insect Star.
• Hu Yu planned to return with the cloned Feng Jun and replace him on a later visit to gain more information through Feng Jun’s connections.

Hu Yu’s first infiltration operation succeeded as human-controlled Wind Star warships transported enslaved civilizations toward the bug planet. Back in the JD3 Planetary System, the fleet began a massive arms buildup, and Hu Yu chose to swap the sixth and third planets to create a more livable home.

• Hu Yu watched enslaved civilizations board the Wind Star warships and broadcast the scene to the fleet as a warning about the costs of weakness.
• Hu Yu dismissed plans to infiltrate the Wind Star People by replacing them individually and accepted that he could not save the captives aboard the ships.
• The 5,000 human-controlled warships departed for the bug planet, beginning a long-term infiltration route into Wind Star territory.
• Hu Yu ordered the JD3 Planetary System to operate at full capacity and told Academician Zeng to pause warship designs while the fleet stockpiled materials and equipment.
• Academician Zeng Zhaoyuan and other physicists studied ways to reduce the sixth planet’s gravity, and Hu Yu chose to swap it with the third planet.

Humanity transformed Planet Three by stripping Planet Six of its atmosphere and water, then using the materials to prepare a second Earth. After the planet’s initial ecological work was completed, the fleet waited for life to develop while Hu Yu continued his espionage mission and industry expanded across the other planets.

• The Stealth Killers moved Planet Six near JD3 Star, where stellar wind stripped away its atmosphere and water for Planet Three to collect.
• After a week, Planet Three had gathered seventy percent of Planet Six’s atmosphere and water, and the Stealth Killers placed it in an Earth-like orbit.
• Hu Yu ordered nuclear bombs dropped on Planet Three to create craters that would become lakes, and household waste was added to help establish microorganisms.
• Within two months, the fleet completed Planet Three’s initial transformation and scattered plant seeds to produce oxygen over the coming years.
• Hu Yu ventured into Wind Star Civilization territory for a second espionage mission, while people began working on Planet Three with oxygen cylinders.
• After twenty years, plants covered Planet Three’s land and freshwater life had begun to reproduce, while machines, factories, and workers developed the other planets.

Humanity planned to use a vast robot army and a growing population to expand its industrial power while avoiding a direct assault on the Wind Star Civilization. Hu Yu continued a covert strategy to defeat Wind Star with minimal force, using an old fleet merchant to impersonate Feng Jun inside a Wind Star shipyard.

• Academician Xiao argued that humanity could imitate biological signals but could not create consciousness, and that even powerful computers remained machines without self-awareness.
• Humanity planned to use centrally controlled robots for simple work and human-operated holographic robots for complex tasks, allowing construction across distant star systems.
• Hu Yu expected Planet Three to become habitable soon and hoped that settling there would encourage population growth and expand the fleet’s robot workforce.
• Hu Yu rejected building 30 billion Stealth Killers for a direct attack and continued pursuing a covert plan to defeat Wind Star with minimal military force.
• An old merchant from the fleet took Feng Jun’s place at a Wind Star shipyard, using their shared unscrupulous business methods to maintain the deception.

Hu Yu used Feng Jun’s clone and black-market connections to expand his influence in Wind Star Civilization, secretly diverting a shipment of Planet 97 creatures to officials. He then continued transporting captive species, including the tree people of Planet 33, whose easy cooperation left him wondering what hardships they still had to endure.

• Hu Yu learned that Feng Jun’s black-market network supplied Planet 97 creatures to Wind Star officials and planned to use the clone’s influence to create turmoil during a future attack.
• Hu Yu secretly diverted a spacecraft carrying a hundred Planet 97 creatures to Feng Jun’s dock, then tasked the old merchant with delivering them to Wind Star’s upper echelons.
• Hu Yu promised the old merchant a Gold Ship Medal if he completed the delivery without being caught.
• Hu Yu watched the fleet transport the tree people from Planet 33, learning that they had lived for billions of years without developing technology.
• The tree people eagerly pulled their roots from the soil and ran toward the warships, making their loading easier than that of other species.

Hu Yu and Academician Zeng considered how humanity could defeat the Wind Star Civilization, including a dangerous plan involving a Cepheid variable, while Hu Yu organized a vast warship and fighter-building program. The chapter left humanity preparing for a quick strike as its settlements on Planet Three continued to develop.

• Hu Yu sent the treants’ warship into deep space, where the cold entering through holes in its hull froze them solid, and handed control of Si Luo to another operator.
• Academician Zeng concluded that the Wind Star Civilization’s powerful fleet could not be defeated by a frontal assault with humanity’s current capabilities.
• Academician Zeng considered propelling a Cepheid variable into Wind Star territory, but the plan risked harming other civilizations and attracting the attention of advanced powers.
• Hu Yu resolved to seek a quick victory because Wind Star’s enormous logistical resources would make a prolonged war unwinnable.
• Hu Yu approved a plan to build at least fifty million Wind Masters over five hundred years, using billions of workers and robots.
• Planet Three’s homes spread across a lush landscape after decades of modifications made the planet suitable for ordinary people to live on.

Over two hundred years on JD3, the fleet built a stable home on Earth Two, expanded its population and technology, and produced ten million Wind Master warships. Hu Yu then heard an unfamiliar voice calling Si Luo from the Wind Star fleet four thousand light-years away.

• The fleet offered housing, discounts, and spaceships to encourage families to have children, and JD3's population grew to over eight billion.
• The fleet expanded JD3 from six planets to twenty-three and developed its scientific workforce and nonmilitary technologies.
• Wen Zhonghua completed the acquisition of seventeen planets, while the fleet built ten million Wind Master warships with speeds matching or exceeding those of the Wind Star Civilization.
• Hu Yu controlled Si Luo's clone beyond the Wind Star Civilization's defenses when an unfamiliar voice called Si Luo from the distant Wind Star fleet.

Hu Yu discovered that a towering tree man had hidden aboard the Wind Star fleet and brought it onto the Wind Master. The tree man explained how it had detected the human infiltration and revealed that every tree man on Planet No. 33 was a branch controlled by its main consciousness.

• Hu Yu searched the warship after hearing a mysterious voice, then concluded with Academician Xiao's help that it came from one of the beings aboard.
• Hu Yu dumped the frozen beings from the fleet onto Insect Star and watched as a tree man emerged from the mound of bodies.
• Hu Yu let the tree man aboard the Wind Master despite a subordinate's concern.
• The tree man explained that it had sensed the human puppets' brain waves, boarded the warship to escape Planet No. 33, and used its remaining energy to contact Hu Yu.
• The tree man revealed that all tree men on Planet No. 33 were branches controlled by its single main consciousness.

Hu Yu learned about Ninety-Seven’s origins, abilities, and long exile from the Treefolk homeworld. The revelation that the Treefolk elders hid their home system in folded space left Hu Yu and Planet Three’s scientists eager to learn how it was done.

• Ninety-Seven explained that Treefolk consciousness came from root-system division, while seeds produced obedient, mindless workers.
• Ninety-Seven told Hu Yu he was a ninety-seventh-generation prince who had left his homeworld after a disagreement and been captured by the Wind Star People.
• Ninety-Seven described how ancient Treefolk gathered energy to bend space and travel between stars, and how their immense bodies limited their mobility.
• Hu Yu asked Ninety-Seven why he had not returned home, and Ninety-Seven said he could not locate the hidden Treefolk system.
• Ninety-Seven revealed that billion-year-old elders folded the space around the home system and continually shifted its position, exciting Academician Zeng and the scientists on Planet Three.

Hu Yu questioned Ninety-Seven about Wind Star Civilization, its military, and the captive civilizations it exploited, then brought him to Planet Three. Ninety-Seven warned that the fleet might be too weak to defeat Wind Star and that Wind Star spies were embedded among other civilizations.

• Ninety-Seven explained that he could not reveal how the Treefolk folded space because the technology was controlled by their elders.
• Ninety-Seven told Hu Yu that Wind Star had about 350 million warships, used captives to feed the Insect Race, and possessed only a hundred giant warships whose purpose he did not know.
• Ninety-Seven offered to share his theoretical knowledge with the fleet, and the Wind Master reached the JD3 Planetary System after traveling for just over ten days.
• Hu Yu settled Ninety-Seven on Planet Three and said he would remain there until the fleet attacked Wind Star Civilization.
• Ninety-Seven cautioned that Hu Yu’s forces would need at least a billion warships for a fifty-percent chance of victory, and warned that Wind Star had planted disguised spies among other civilizations.

Ninety-Seven cared for Earth’s children but encouraged them to play pranks and steal, angering the adults. Hu Yu corrected him and offered him responsibility for a new school, while Ninety-Seven chose to stay and help train the children.

• Ninety-Seven cared for Earth’s children and became their favorite caretaker, but led them into theft and pranks against adults.
• The adults protested and tried to drive Ninety-Seven away, but he refused to leave and continued his mischief.
• The Planetary Administration Council reported the problem to Hu Yu because it could not compel the alien visitor to change.
• Hu Yu explained how Ninety-Seven’s games could teach children bad habits and burden the adults, and Ninety-Seven agreed to stop.
• Hu Yu offered Ninety-Seven a school to run with teachers reviewing his plans, and Ninety-Seven eagerly accepted.
• Ninety-Seven said he felt deeply attached to human children and would stay until Hu Yu conquered the Wind Star Civilization.

Three hundred years after arriving in the JD3 Planetary System, Hu Yu oversaw a growing fleet and developed armor-piercing rounds for attacking the Wind Star Civilization’s defenses. Academician Zeng and Liu Bo could not find a way to move a Cepheid variable, so Hu Yu invited them to travel with him in search of inspiration.

• The fleet’s population reached ten billion, and more than twenty million Wind Masters had been built.
• Hu Yu equipped the fleet to mass-produce Chong Element armor-piercing rounds for clearing Wind Star’s defensive perimeter.
• Academician Zeng and Liu Bo told Hu Yu that three hundred years of research had failed to find a way to propel the Cepheid variable.
• Hu Yu thanked the physicists and invited Academician Zeng and the others to travel with him, recalling their earlier journey around the Solar System.

Hu Yu, Academician Zeng, and Academician Liu looked back on humanity’s escape from the Insect Race and discussed the challenges of reaching Small Star Sector Civilization. They left the conversation focused on the limits of curvature navigation and the need for broader technological breakthroughs.

• Hu Yu took Academician Zeng and Academician Liu in a spacecraft to observe the JD3 Planetary System from above its ecliptic plane.
• Academician Zeng recounted how the Insect Race’s invasion forced humanity to build 250 Polaris spacecraft and how a journey with the general inspired a breakthrough in curvature navigation.
• Hu Yu vowed to find Earth or create an identical one and rebuild the Solar System.
• Academician Zeng worried that humanity lacked a reliable way to defeat the Wind Star Civilization and said he hoped to obtain its complete technology tree.
• Academician Zeng argued that Small Star Sector Civilization would require surpassing the speed limit of curvature navigation and developing new weapons beyond improved antimatter and lasers.

Academician Liu proposed collecting neutron-degenerate matter from a Cepheid variable by crashing a star into it, and the fleet carried out the plan. Five specially built ships captured the scattered matter within seconds, leaving humanity with the material it needed for its next step.

• Academician Liu proposed moving a nearby star into the Cepheid variable and using small ships to capture the ejected neutron-degenerate matter before it decayed.
• The Wind Masters moved a yellow dwarf to within ten thousand kilometers of the Cepheid variable and withdrew.
• The yellow dwarf spiraled into the Cepheid variable, then shattered in a massive explosion that scattered fragments and degenerate matter.
• Five chong-element-hulled ships warped through the blast and reached positions identified by Academician Zeng and Academician Liu’s simulations.
• The five ships detected the Cepheid variable matter, enveloped it, and used directional force fields and magnetic fields to keep it compressed.

Hu Yu heard how Old Li had used Feng Jun to build a powerful business network on Wind Star and infiltrate the civilization’s government. Feng Jun bribed the industry minister to secure a deputy commerce minister position and began exploiting the minister’s resentment toward the leader.

• Hu Yu praised Old Li’s success in taking control of much of Wind Star’s entertainment and food industries, but ordered him to focus on intelligence and avoid stirring up trouble.
• Old Li told Hu Yu that he had tested addictive Earth-era substances on Wind Star People, and Hu Yu instructed him not to use them.
• Feng Jun met the industry minister in a secret chamber beneath a dockyard and offered him two meatballs and fifty billion contribution points.
• The industry minister said he had spoken to the head of state and that Feng Jun had a good chance of becoming deputy commerce minister.
• Feng Jun drew out the industry minister’s resentment toward the leader and offered to help him gain more power.

Old Li rose to power on Wind Star and used addictive Silo Liquor and political division to weaken the Wind Star Civilization as Hu Yu prepared a fleet for war. The fleet neared completion, and Hu Yu began moving supplies and equipment to two planets ahead of the coming conflict.

• Old Li reported the minister of industry's ambitions to Hu Yu, who told him to wait for a suitable chance to encourage a coup.
• Ninety-Seven ran a school for mischievous children, whose students later proved exceptionally capable and made him one of Planet Three's most sought-after people.
• Old Li became vice minister of commerce in year 450 and supplied the fleet with secret intelligence about Wind Star.
• Old Li spread cheap Silo Liquor containing addictive molecules and used public opinion to silence people who warned against it.
• Hu Yu's fleet of fifty million warships neared completion, equipped with antimatter bombs, gravity bombs, lasers, and armor-piercing rounds.
• Hu Yu began transferring supplies and equipment to Earth Two and a resource planet that could supply minerals for another fleet.

Hu Yu learned that the Wind Star Civilization might be preparing a revenge expedition and accelerated humanity’s preparations for war and evacuation. He left ten million warships to protect Earth Two while planning to commit the rest to battle, then returned home to reunite with Xiao Xiao and Hu Yunhang.

• Old Li told Hu Yu that the Wind Star leader had ordered 130 billion tons of food and that an old document described the Wind Star Civilization’s defeat twenty thousand years earlier, suggesting it was preparing for revenge.
• Hu Yu ordered his staff to revise the battle plan, speed up the transfer of supplies, and prepare to destroy or abandon what could not be moved within a year.
• Hu Yu assigned ten million Stealth Killers to protect Earth Two and committed the remaining forty million warships to the battle.
• Hu Yu returned home and reunited with Xiao Xiao and Hu Yunhang, while Xiao Xiao complained that he rarely came home despite being able to return quickly.