Recaps

Li Youwei’s research showed how magnetic fields could disintegrate the organisms Academician Xiao created, and Academician Liu Bo used the finding to support his theory that matter and energy were made of basic space. He proposed using basic space to overcome the spacecraft speed limit and explore entry into the fourth dimension.

• Li Youwei explained how precisely tuned magnetic fields could disintegrate the organisms, though the method was impractical for combat.
• Academician Xiao praised Li Youwei, then invited Academician Liu Bo to present his findings.
• Academician Liu Bo argued that matter, energy, and space shared a common origin and that basic space formed the foundation of matter and energy.
• Academician Liu Bo suggested that particles carried basic space between three and four dimensions, increasing the nebula region’s spatial density.
• Academician Liu Bo proposed manipulating basic space to break the thousand-times-light-speed limit and possibly enter the fourth dimension.

Humanity prepared to negotiate with the nebula main consciousnesses by offering seven powerful organisms that could grant them biological bodies, while secretly positioning warships to contain them. The main consciousnesses demanded the organisms, and Hu Yu and Academician Xiao tried to secure humanity’s escape by exploiting their need for the human scientists.

• Academicians Liu, Li Youwei, and Zeng discussed the speculative nature of fundamental space and the advances needed to study it.
• In the 265th year in the nebula region, humanity completed its preparations, positioning a hundred thousand Wind Masters around the nebula and enclosing it with magnetic fields.
• Academician Xiao and Hu Yu presented seven humanoid organisms to the nebula main consciousnesses, which confirmed that the organisms offered a nearly certain path to liberation.
• The main consciousnesses demanded the organisms, but Academician Xiao refused, warning that he would destroy them and himself if they attacked humanity.
• Hu Yu and Academician Xiao promised that humanity would leave the nebula and never return, while the main consciousnesses remained distrustful.

Hu Yu negotiated the humans’ departure from the nebula in exchange for leaving Science City, a fleet, and technology behind. After Earth Two departed, the Main Consciousnesses seized control of the abandoned ships, while Hu Yu’s mysterious smile suggested the humans had another plan.

• Hu Yu warned the Nebula Lifeforms that humans could destroy the organisms and publicize their existence, then offered to honor their previous agreement in exchange for safe passage.
• The Main Consciousnesses debated whether to trust the humans and agreed to accept the deal, demanding that humans leave a million people behind as leverage.
• Hu Yu refused to leave anyone and offered Science City instead, and the parties agreed to exchange it for Earth Two’s passage one light-year from the nebula’s edge.
• At the exchange point, Hu Yu handed over Science City’s controls and left the city, its organisms, and a hundred thousand Wind Master warships behind as Earth Two departed.
• Wen Zhonghua asked Hu Yu if he truly intended to leave Science City, and Hu Yu smiled without answering.
• After the humans left, the Main Consciousnesses used Branch Consciousness Entities to infiltrate and take control of the Wind Masters and Science City’s spaceships.

The seven freed Insect Race organisms tried to raid Science City and escape with human warships, but Academician Xiao had prepared a trap. After they were captured and brought to Earth Two, Little Crabs were implanted in their brains, and they awoke eager to serve humanity.

• The seven organisms emerged from their gas-cloud forms and agreed to loot Science City before destroying it and fleeing aboard the warships.
• As the organisms tried to remove a storage device, hidden robots captured them, and Academician Xiao revealed that he had no intention of letting them go.
• The hundred thousand Wind Masters and Science City broke free of the organisms' control and caught up with Earth Two two months later.
• Academician Xiao ordered the organisms knocked unconscious and had Little Crabs implanted in their brains.
• Two days later, the organisms awoke feeling loyal to humanity and asked Academician Xiao to assign them work.

Humanity’s fleet left the Eagle Nebula and settled at the JD4 Planetary System, where Hu Yu ordered a period of rest, research, and expansion. The fleet began building more Wind Masters and turning Earth Two into a fortified interstellar spaceship while scientists tested technologies taken from the Wind Star Civilization.

• The Main Consciousness placed Zero in charge of Number One and the other liberated Branch Consciousness Entities.
• Humanity left the nebula region with twenty million Wind Masters and continued toward the front lines between the civilizations and the Insect Race.
• The fleet stopped at the JD4 Planetary System, 2,500 light-years from the Eagle Nebula, and Academician Zeng named the system.
• Hu Yu chose to rest there and ordered the fleet to build at least thirty million Wind Masters while Science City conducted experiments.
• Hu Yu ordered Earth Two to be equipped with curvature engines, weapons, and underground cities so it could serve as a fortified spaceship.
• Science City began expanding to ten ships so scientists could test and adapt the Wind Star Civilization’s technology.

After three hundred years of strengthening Earth Two and expanding the fleet, Academician Xiao took seven Nebula People to admire JD4’s night sky. Their quiet outing ended when they detected a human Morse-code signal warning of danger and revenge from the Xuan Star Civilization, sent by Luo Zhigao.

• Hu Yu delayed the fleet’s advance while the scientists continued their research and the fleet built up its strength.
• Over three hundred years, Earth Two became a fortified stronghold, the Wind Master fleet grew to fifty million warships, and Academician Xiao freed more Nebula People.
• Academician Xiao took seven Nebula People to watch the stars and told them he might eventually give them ships and technology so they could leave humanity.
• The seven Nebula People begged Academician Xiao not to send them away, and the group postponed deciding their future.
• Number Six and Number Three detected a brief human signal, which Number One decoded as a Morse-code warning: “danger, revenge, Xuan Star Civilization, Luo Zhigao!”

Academician Xiao reported that Number One and the other Nebula People had detected a distress signal apparently sent by Minister Luo Zhigao, warning of danger and naming the Xuan Star Civilization. Hu Yu took a fleet to investigate, and after receiving the weakening signal at a second location, began pinpointing its source.

• Academician Xiao brought Number One’s report to the command room, where the Nebula People explained that a powerful signal from a light-year away had included the words “danger,” “revenge,” “Xuan Star Civilization,” and “Luo Zhigao.”
• Academician Zeng analyzed the message and said it might be a genuine warning from Minister Luo or a trap, but the signal’s route past the satellites remained unexplained.
• Hu Yu decided to track the signal and rescue Minister Luo if possible, ordered the fleet onto emergency footing, and set out with Wen Zhonghua, several academicians, and seven Nebula People aboard a Wind Master.
• A hundred thousand Wind Masters traveled in the direction indicated by the Nebula People and reached a point behind the signal’s location eight hours later.
• Number One sensed the weakening signal, and Hu Yu sent several Wind Masters a hundred astronomical units away to use multiple reception points to locate its source.

Hu Yu’s fleet discovered that Luo Zhigao’s messages came through an unstable spatial connection, and Academician Zeng suspected a spatial vortex. After Luo warned them about the Xuan Star Civilization, Hu Yu ordered Earth Two to prepare for war and gave the scientists twenty years to improve travel speed and weapons.

• Hu Yu’s fleet searched the signal’s apparent origin but found nothing, until Academician Liu Bo concluded the signal came through a spatial connection.
• Hu Yu waited a year for a reply, then received Luo Zhigao’s message warning them not to confront the Xuan Star Civilization before reaching the advanced stage of Small Star Sector Civilization.
• Hu Yu led the fleet to the satellite that received Luo’s message and told him that their people had become a Small Star Sector Civilization.
• Academician Zeng proposed that a spatial vortex with a shifting tail explained why Luo’s signal appeared in different locations.
• Hu Yu ordered Zhonghua to move planets to the JD4 Planetary System, mobilize production, and prepare the people for war.
• Academician Liu Bo agreed to help the scientists break the speed limit within twenty years, while Hu Yu prepared to confront the Xuan Star Civilization.

Hu Yu learned that Luo Zhigao’s fleet was roughly thirty thousand light-years away and launched an urgent rescue expedition with eighteen planets. The fleet raced toward its compatriots while billions worked to build ships and weapons, leaving Hu Yu uncertain whether they could defeat the Xuan Star Civilization in time.

• Hu Yu and the academicians calculated that Luo Zhigao was thirty thousand to thirty-five thousand light-years away, though they could not determine the direction precisely.
• Hu Yu used his knowledge of Luo Zhigao’s likely route to set out immediately and sent him a message promising rescue.
• Hu Yu launched eighteen rocky planets toward the distant fleet, beginning humanity’s first ultra-long-distance rescue mission with twelve billion people aboard.
• Hu Yu’s fleet passed the Snow Star Civilization without stopping and briefly paused at Tau Ceti before continuing its journey.
• After ten years without another message from Luo Zhigao, people across the fleet worked through exhaustion and injury to build warships and weapons.
• Hu Yu worried that his fleet, despite its advances, might not be strong enough to defeat the Xuan Star Civilization.

Hu Yu visited the exhausted space scientists and ordered them to rest, hoping to improve their chances of solving navigation and weapons technology for the rescue mission. After resting, Academician Liu Bo realized how Basic Space’s structure could be manipulated to produce far more destructive energy than antimatter.

• Hu Yu visited Academician Liu Bo, Academician Zhang Xinheng, Academician Li Youwei, Academician Zeng Zhaoyuan, and the other space scientists, who admitted that they had yet to turn Basic Space theory into practical technology.
• Hu Yu sent the scientists to wash up, eat, and rest for twenty-four hours, and the logistics staff gave them haircuts and shaves before dinner.
• Academician Liu Bo lay awake after dinner and, while thinking about matter and energy, realized that their structure determined how energy could be released.
• Academician Liu Bo contacted Academician Zeng Zhaoyuan, and the two hurried to the laboratory.
• Academician Liu Bo explained that breaking the structure of basic energy, or containing it without forming matter, could create destructive power far beyond matter-antimatter annihilation.

Academician Liu Bo and Academician Zeng developed a plan to use pure energy structures to increase warp speed, but Zeng warned that the structure might form a black hole. Their calculations set a ten-meter maximum, and the first attempt to convert matter into pure energy failed.

• Academician Liu Bo and Academician Zeng discussed turning basic energy into a weapon and using solid energy to increase the ship’s warp speed.
• Academician Liu Bo and Academician Zeng prepared an experiment on Earth Two to convert matter into pure energy with a Magnetic Field Line Scalpel.
• Academician Zeng stopped Liu Bo before the cut, warning that a pure energy structure might resemble a black hole.
• Academician Liu Bo, Academician Zeng, and the other academicians calculated that the energy structure could not exceed ten meters without collapsing into a black hole.
• The academicians began the experiment, but the basic energy units vanished as the magnetic field lines entered them, and the first attempt failed.

Academician Liu discovered how to turn matter into a pure energy body by introducing only a tiny change to its Perfect Structure. Two months later, the fleet had created a powerful energy weapon, and Hu Yu offered a star as a source of purified matter.

• After 5,178 failed attempts, Academician Liu stopped the experiment after introducing a single energy bubble, and the quark transformed into a pure energy body.
• Academician Liu explained that a tiny change disrupted matter's Perfect Structure, allowing the universe's rules to complete the transformation.
• Academician Zeng left to report the discovery, and the scientists developed the process for mass production.
• Two months later, Hu Yu learned that an energy ball could be activated to explode with enough force to blast Earth into powder.
• Academician Zeng said large-scale production required purified matter, and Hu Yu asked what he thought of a star's purity.

Hu Yu’s fleet developed energy-sphere weapons and traveled to the region where Luo Zhigao might be trapped. After a year of searching, they found Luo Zhigao’s fleet alive inside a vast spatial vortex and prepared to rescue their compatriots.

• Hu Yu and Academician Zeng discussed converting stellar matter into energy and raising the fleet’s cruising speed, while deciding not to contact the leader until they had grown stronger.
• The fleet converted a young star into energy spheres, equipped Wind Masters with energy bombs, and continued its journey as the star quietly went out in the twenty-fifth year.
• In the thirtieth year, Hu Yu’s fleet reached the region where Luo Zhigao might be found and sent a million small ships to search for signs of his fleet and the spatial vortex.
• After more than a year without news, Hu Yu received a report that three fleets and a human fleet were gathered around a spatial vortex more than two light-years across.
• Hu Yu recognized Luo Zhigao’s fleet inside the vortex, and the fleet’s people celebrated and hurried to prepare to save their compatriots.

Hu Yu and the others discovered Luo Zhigao’s fleet trapped in a spatial vortex and planned to contact him before organizing a rescue. Luo Zhigao’s fleet was running out of energy, and one of his scientists had collapsed as the danger grew.

• A small spacecraft observed Luo Zhigao’s fleet trapped inside a vortex while three Xuan Star Civilization fleets waited outside.
• Hu Yu rejected an immediate approach and a broadcast, deciding that another spacecraft would enter from the far side and take at least a year to reach Luo Zhigao.
• Hu Yu ordered the fleet to continue onward for twenty-eight hundred light-years while Earth Two stayed behind under the protection of a million Wind Masters.
• Luo Zhigao’s fleet continued sinking toward the vortex’s center after thirty years of struggling to escape.
• Vice Minister Fang Xinyun told Luo Zhigao that the fleet had energy for at most three more years and that Academician Gao Zhengyang had collapsed from exhaustion.

Luo Zhigao rejected hopes of rescue and prepared his fleet for an impending defeat, while Academician Gao insisted on continuing research. The chapter left Luo Zhigao ordering warships sacrificed to extend the fleet’s survival and recounted how a hostile fleet had driven him into the spatial vortex.

• Luo Zhigao told Academician Gao and Li Wenfei that the Xuan Star Civilization was too powerful to defeat and that they should not expect rescue from Hu Yu.
• Academician Gao refused to give up his research and left after arguing with Luo Zhigao.
• Luo Zhigao ordered Li Wenfei to abandon some warships and pool their energy to buy time for the scientists and civilians.
• The chapter recounted how Luo Zhigao had built his fleet through battles and captured technology, while trying to avoid making too many enemies.
• A fleet of fifty million warships appeared fifty light-years away, and Luo Zhigao destroyed his planetary base and led his fleet away.

Luo Zhigao’s fleet escaped its pursuers by entering a spatial vortex, but became trapped inside and began running out of energy. As the fleet neared destruction, Li Wenfei reported that a small spaceship was approaching.

• The First Army Group sacrificed itself to hold back the pursuing fleet, allowing Luo Zhigao to lead the civilians farther away.
• Luo Zhigao directed the fleet into a spatial vortex, where distorted space kept the Xuan Star Civilization’s attacks from hitting accurately.
• The fleet’s warp engines failed inside the vortex, and its scientists could not find a way to escape before the fleet ran out of energy.
• Luo Zhigao received messages from Hu Yu, but refused to provide his coordinates because he feared Hu Yu would be endangered.
• As the fleet fell toward the vortex’s center, Li Wenfei reported that a small spaceship was approaching at high speed.

Hu Yu reunited with Luo Zhigao inside the space vortex and learned that the Xuan Star Civilization had trapped Luo’s fleet there. Hu Yu began coordinating a rescue and an attack while scientists from both fleets worked on an escape plan.

• Luo Zhigao ordered his communications ship to slow down and receive the approaching spaceship, which carried Hu Yu and his companions.
• Hu Yu and Luo Zhigao reunited in tears after a thousand years apart, and Hu Yu refused Luo’s order to leave.
• Luo Zhigao explained that the Xuan Star Civilization had driven his fleet into the vortex, where it could survive only five or six more years.
• Luo Zhigao described the Xuan Star Civilization’s space-compression attack, and Hu Yu recognized the technology from a previous encounter.
• Hu Yu ordered Academician Zeng and the scientists to devise an escape from the vortex while his fleet prepared to supply Luo’s fleet and join the rescue attack.

On Earth Two, Academician Zeng and Hu Yu devised a plan to disrupt the spatial vortex with energy balls so Luo Zhigao’s fleet could escape, but manufacturing enough would take five years. Hu Yu’s fleet began production while Luo Zhigao told him not to risk an early delivery, believing his reserves could last.

• Hu Yu decided to attack the Xuan Star Civilization to buy Luo Zhigao’s fleet time while Academician Zeng and Academician Liu continued studying how to weaken the vortex.
• Academician Zeng proposed detonating energy balls near the vortex’s center to disrupt its rotation, and Hu Yu agreed the plan was feasible.
• Hu Yu and Hu Yu’s team calculated that they needed a thousand large energy balls, which would take five or six years to manufacture.
• Hu Yu ordered transport ships and bases to begin producing energy balls around the extinguished star, while Luo Zhigao received the rescue news and worried that Hu Yu might risk his fleet.
• Luo Zhigao told Hu Yu his reserves could last and urged him not to expose himself by delivering energy early; Hu Yu checked Luo Zhigao’s energy situation repeatedly before feeling reassured.

Hu Yu prepared an unmanned Wind Master assault to strike the Xuan Star Civilization while ensuring Luo Zhigao escaped the spatial vortex without joining the battle. The first wave of energy sphere bombs reached the enemy fleet and began devastating its warships.

• Hu Yu concealed his plan to keep Luo Zhigao and his people out of the coming battle, while preparing Wind Masters and energy spheres for their escape.
• Hu Yu divided the Wind Masters into four groups and ordered them to attack the Xuan Star Civilization’s three fleets, using gravity bombs to disrupt enemy movement.
• The Wind Master fleet traveled to the Xuan fleets and split into four batches, while Luo Zhigao remained unaware of the attack.
• After the Xuan fleet detected the approaching Wind Masters, Hu Yu ordered the ships to launch energy sphere bombs.
• The bombs exploded inside the Xuan fleet and swept through space, destroying even its most powerful warships.

Hu Yu’s fleet attacked the Xuan Star Civilization with energy balls, then fought a deadly close-range battle while ten thousand Wind Masters entered the spatial vortex to support Luo Zhigao. Hu Yu revealed that he had started the war early to buy Luo time to escape, leaving the fleet to hold the enemy back.

• Hu Yu’s fleet detonated energy balls that destroyed more than four million Xuan Star Civilization warships across three directions.
• The Xuan Star Civilization fleet spread out and advanced, and its superior warships began destroying Wind Masters in a chaotic melee.
• Li Zhixiong and Gao Jianchuan coordinated the Wind Masters’ defense as their ships fell under the enemy’s zero-delay laser attacks.
• Ten thousand Wind Masters entered the spatial vortex and transferred energy to Luo Zhigao’s fleet so it could prepare to break free.
• Hu Yu told Luo Zhigao that the battle had begun early and urged him to escape while Hu Yu’s fleet held off the Xuan Star Civilization.

Luo Zhigao’s fleet began escaping the spatial vortex while Hu Yu’s Wind Masters fought the Xuan Star Civilization’s fleets to buy him time. Facing heavy losses, Hu Yu ordered a desperate warp-speed ramming assault, prompting the Xuan Star commander to activate the Space Cage.

• The Wind Masters detonated a thousand energy balls to open a passage through the spatial vortex, allowing Luo Zhigao’s fleet to advance toward its edge.
• The fourth group of 35 million Wind Masters attacked the Xuan Star Civilization’s fleet, destroying more than three million warships, while Luo Zhigao’s ships accelerated against the vortex’s current.
• After forty-five days, the Xuan Star Civilization destroyed the Wind Masters at the other two positions and concentrated its fleets against Hu Yu’s remaining 32 million Wind Masters.
• Hu Yu ordered the Wind Masters to fire their bombs, activate their warp drives, and ram the enemy ships to keep the Xuan Star fleet occupied.
• The Wind Masters crippled or destroyed more than a million Xuan Star warships in two minutes, forcing the enemy fleet to flee at warp speed as the humans pursued.
• The Xuan Star commander ordered his forces to activate the Space Cage and focus on the pursuing Wind Masters, leaving Luo Zhigao’s fleet unblocked.

The Wind Masters adapted to the Xuan Star Civilization’s Space Cage tactic and continued to resist while Luo Zhigao’s fleet neared the edge of the space vortex. The chapter left Hu Yu’s fleet still fighting with 25 million ships as Luo Zhigao prepared to break out in two months.

• The Xuan Star Civilization trapped and destroyed over a million Wind Masters with more than 400,000 Space Cages, but Hu Yu and Wen Zhonghua ordered the survivors to maneuver between cages and avoid being trapped.
• Over the next four months, the Wind Masters lost five million ships while the Xuan Star Civilization lost 500,000, leaving 27 million Wind Masters after six months of fighting.
• Luo Zhigao abandoned large transport ships and discarded nonessential equipment from his warships to reduce their mass and speed his fleet’s journey out of the vortex.
• The Xuan Star Civilization’s commander ordered the fleet to keep wearing down the humans rather than use the energy-intensive Space Barrier against their scattered ships.
• Near Earth Two, production reached 3,000 Wind Masters a day, and the six million ships there were kept back to defend the system.
• A month later, Hu Yu told Luo Zhigao that his fleet could hold out; Luo Zhigao’s fleet was expected to break out of the vortex in two months.

Luo Zhigao’s fleet escaped the spatial vortex by activating its warp engines, while Hu Yu’s Wind Masters sacrificed themselves to hold the Xuan Star Civilization’s forces back. The chapter left Hu Yu’s survivors preparing to meet Luo Zhigao at the agreed planetary system.

• Luo Zhigao and Academician Gao Zhengyang confirmed that the fleet could risk using warp engines near the vortex’s edge, while Hu Yu promised to hold off the enemy.
• Luo Zhigao’s fleet activated its warp engines and escaped into normal space, then set course for the planetary system agreed upon with Hu Yu.
• The Xuan Star Civilization’s commander refused to pursue Luo Zhigao and continued trapping Hu Yu’s fleet in the spatial vortex.
• Luo Zhigao traveled toward the rendezvous by a winding route to prevent the enemy from tracking him.
• Hu Yu self-destructed the last 170,000 Wind Masters, severing the enemy’s connection to that region after all fifty million of his warships had been lost.
• Two million surviving Wind Masters deployed equipment and satellite coverage along the route to the planetary system where Luo Zhigao was expected to arrive.

After the Xuan Star Civilization’s fleet lost track of Luo Zhigao, Hu Yu and Luo Zhigao’s fleets reunited on Earth Two after 1,500 years apart. Hu Yu declared a huge welcome and National Day celebration for the arriving fleet, and Earth Two erupted with excitement.

• Hu Yu left machinery and planets for Luo Zhigao, while sharing technology to help both fleets overcome their shortages.
• After four years without being caught by the Xuan Star Civilization, Luo Zhigao arrived at Earth Two with his battered fleet.
• Hu Yu, Xiao Xiao, and other fleet personnel welcomed Luo Zhigao and his people with tearful embraces and joyful reunions.
• Hu Yu announced that September 28, 3685, marked the fleets’ reunion and ordered everyone to begin a grand welcome and National Day celebration.
• The announcement spread across Earth Two, and countless small spacecraft took off as its thirteen billion people celebrated.

Luo Zhigao's ten billion people left their cramped fleet and settled into comfortable temporary homes on Earth Two, where they were welcomed with celebrations and gifts. In Science City, Hu Yu's and Luo Zhigao's scientists began sharing their fleets' advanced technologies.

• Small spacecraft surrounded Luo Zhigao's fleet to transport its ten billion people to Earth Two, where temporary houses had been built for them.
• The arriving people surprised their hosts with glasses that simulated scenery and sounds, then gave pairs away until nearly everyone on Earth Two had one.
• After two days of boarding, all ten billion people were settled in temporary homes and explored the rivers, lakes, forests, and grasslands.
• People across Earth Two held welcoming festivities and National Day celebrations while scientists from both fleets gathered in Science City.
• Academician Zeng shared the fleet's latest technologies, including the four-dimensional communications network, spatial density, Basic Energy, and Basic Space, with space physics academicians represented by Gao Zhengyang.