Recaps

Academician Zeng and Academician Liu explained Basic Space, Basic Energy, and Perfect Structure to the gathered academicians. Gao Zhengyang then shared how his team had used compressed space to achieve faster-than-light communication, leaving them with a possible route toward spatial transfer.

• Academician Zeng and Academician Liu spent more than four hours explaining their technologies and theories to the academicians.
• Gao Zhengyang bowed to thank them for sharing their knowledge and admitted his team had little to present beyond its communication research.
• Gao Zhengyang described how his team noticed electromagnetic signals crossed space around binary stars slightly faster than expected.
• Gao Zhengyang explained that his team modified curvature engines into space compressors, which compressed space and enabled signals to travel up to a thousand times the speed of light.
• Gao Zhengyang outlined the method's limits, including its need for large specialized ships, directional long-distance transmissions, restricted range, and high error rates.

Gao Zhengyang explained how spatial transfer could carry weapons hidden inside moving space, and Academician Liu Bo confirmed that massless energy balls might travel farther than solid matter. The group decided to begin producing space compressors and reconsider laser weapons.

• Gao Zhengyang described tests showing that spatial transfer carried signals quickly over short distances, while a metal ball traveled less than one light-second.
• Academician Zeng challenged Gao Zhengyang's claim that the technology could deliver weapons, and Academician Liu Bo and Academician Li Youwei helped restore the friendly atmosphere.
• Gao Zhengyang explained that matter inside moving space was difficult to detect and that spatial turbulence could conceal real attacks among decoys.
• Academician Zeng asked whether energy balls could be transmitted farther, and Academician Liu Bo agreed that their lack of mass made long-distance delivery possible.
• The academicians decided to mass-produce space compressors for energy balls and discussed improving laser weapons, prompting Gao Zhengyang to object to turning the energy balls into lasers.

Hu Yu and Luo Zhigao discussed their fleets’ history after a month of technological exchange, including their encounter with a civilization that fed humans to insect swarms. Luo Zhigao revealed that Mr. Daozi had rescued his fleet, while Hu Yu suspected the mysterious figure was testing and guiding them.

• The two fleets’ academicians spent a month exchanging technological knowledge, bringing both fleets closer to becoming a small star sector civilization.
• Hu Yu proposed settling in a quiet planetary system, and Luo Zhigao recounted discovering high-tier insect swarms feeding on captured civilized beings about a thousand years earlier.
• Luo Zhigao said his fleet found humans among the insects, then encountered the food-delivery fleet of a late-stage star system-level civilization while fleeing.
• A mysterious old man in an ox-shaped spaceship rescued Luo Zhigao’s fleet by transporting its residential and support ships to an unfamiliar planetary system.
• Hu Yu recognized the old man as Mr. Daozi and told Luo Zhigao that Daozi had also led Hu Yu’s fleet to a four-dimensional space bubble after an encounter with the Wind Star Civilization.

A minister recounted how his civilization survived an insect swarm, was devastated by Fish Horse Star Civilization warships, and later clashed with Xuan Star Civilization. After discussing the secret feeding of the Insect Race, he and Xiao Hu agreed to separate and pursue their own development in accordance with the Leader’s mission.

• The minister explained that his people had escaped thousands of light-years from the insect swarm and peacefully advanced for more than four hundred years before returning to investigate it.
• The minister’s fleet destroyed a rival fleet and the insect swarm, but a hundred mysterious warships—identified as Fish Horse Star Civilization ships—destroyed tens of millions of his warships and killed hundreds of millions of crew members.
• The minister and Xiao Hu concluded that Fish Horse Star Civilization was secretly feeding the Insect Race and suspected a still larger mastermind was behind the scheme.
• The minister argued that the Leader wanted his followers to act independently rather than reunite or rely on him, so he and Xiao Hu decided to part after completing their technology exchange.
• Xiao Hu planned to settle in a quiet planetary system and advance, while the minister planned to continue toward the galactic center and eventually fight the Insect Race.

After five years of technological exchange and cooperation, Luo Zhigao’s fleet said farewell to Hu Yu’s fleet and departed with Earth Three. The Xuan Star Civilization’s fleet was closing in on Hu Yu, leaving his smaller fleet at risk while Luo Zhigao worried that something about their pursuit was wrong.

• Over five years, Luo Zhigao’s fleet upgraded its ships while Hu Yu’s fleet improved its weapons, and the two fleets built Earth Three into a habitable planet.
• During a Wind Master production inspection, Wen Zhonghua reported that two reconnaissance satellites a thousand light-years away had gone silent, prompting Luo Zhigao and Hu Yu to recognize that it was time to part.
• Luo Zhigao embraced Hu Yu, then led his people aboard their warships and left with more than thirty million ships, Earth Three, and several rocky planets.
• The lost satellites’ images showed a fleet of around ninety million Xuan Star Civilization ships; Luo Zhigao’s fleet took a course at a right angle to it, while Hu Yu’s fleet remained on the same course and could be caught within two years.
• Hu Yu dismissed Luo Zhigao’s repeated concerns, but he suspected something strange about the pursuit as Luo Zhigao sat deep in thought with Li Wenfei, Fang Xinyun, Gao Zhengyang, and the others.

Luo Zhigao severed contact with Hu Yu’s group to protect them from being traced, while Hu Yu split his forces and prepared to strike the Xuan Star Civilization. The chapter ended with Hu Yu revealing his suspicion that the Xuan Star Civilization had deliberately allowed Luo Zhigao to escape.

• Luo Zhigao sent Hu Yu and his comrades a farewell message, warning that their communication method could expose them and arranging for future technology deliveries to Epsilon Eridani every five thousand years.
• Hu Yu struggled with the sudden separation, then decided to abandon the plan to go to JD4 and attack the Xuan Star Civilization instead.
• Hu Yu assigned Yang Fan and Chen Peng to lead Earth Two and three million Wind Masters toward JD4, while he stayed behind with Wen Zhonghua, Gao Jianchuan, Li Zhixiong, and three million crew members to build a fleet.
• Hu Yu planned to search for the Xuan Star Civilization’s home base, destroy its insect-swarm allies, and find the Fish Horse Star Civilization’s location.
• Hu Yu told his advisers that the Xuan Star Civilization might have deliberately let Luo Zhigao escape, since it could have sent more forces to intercept him after destroying fifty million Wind Masters.

The human fleet planned to evade the pursuing Xuan Star Civilization by returning toward the space vortex while sending Earth Two and a decoy force on different routes. The Xuan Star commander tracked the humans’ satellites and expected to find their hidden base soon.

• The humans reasoned that the Xuan Star Civilization had let Minister Luo’s fleet go so it could follow the fleet back to their base, then spent years building up its forces and tracing their route.
• The human leaders decided to take twenty thousand transport ships toward the space vortex, while Yang Fan and Chen Peng escorted Earth Two and ten million Wind Masters carried rocky planets as a decoy.
• Earth Two departed with three million Wind Masters, and Hu Yu and the other three million people boarded transport ships carrying five billion robots and engineering equipment.
• The Xuan Star commander explained that he had released Minister Luo’s fleet to lead him to the humans’ base, and planned to let Ji Wa take the first attack because of the humans’ strange bombs.
• The Xuan Star commander’s officers continued tracking the humans through their reconnaissance satellites, and he expected to catch up with them soon.

Hu Yu hid humanity’s transport ships on an inconspicuous planet while Wind Masters drew the Xuan Star Civilization into a costly battle that ended with the planets destroyed. A year later, Earth Two appeared safe for now as Hu Yu and the academicians prepared to rebuild and advance their technology.

• Hu Yu landed the transport ships on an inconspicuous planet and buried them in its soil near the spatial vortex.
• Ten million Wind Masters ambushed Ji Wa’s fleet, destroying more than five million ships before Bi Cha’s force joined the battle.
• Bi Cha’s warships destroyed the planets, and Ji Wa’s spatial net wiped out the Wind Masters, though Ji Wa lost more than six million warships.
• Hu Yu’s hidden fleet resumed producing energy spheres, and a year later satellites showed the Xuan Star Civilization fleet returning, easing his fears for Earth Two.
• Academician Zeng began designing an improved transitional Wind Master, while Academician Liu Bo’s team continued seeking a breakthrough in spatial technology.

Academician Liu discovered that transferring space from behind a spacecraft to in front of it could enable travel faster than a thousand times the speed of light, potentially advancing the fleet toward Small Star Sector Civilization. After the breakthrough reached Academician Zeng, the Wind Master improvement plans were halted and work shifted toward a new warship design.

• Academician Liu realized that a space compressor could transfer space from behind a spacecraft to the front, creating a density difference to propel it.
• Academician Liu explained that increasing the compressor's energy supply and transfer rate could raise travel speed beyond the current limit, and Academician Su Shuai suggested powering it directly with energy spheres.
• The academicians agreed to develop a rough compressor design and consider space weapons for the new warships, while postponing tests until they reached JD4.
• Academician Zeng halted the Wind Master improvement plans, joined Academician Liu in space technology research, and began preparing for a new warship design.

Hu Yu paused construction while waiting for Academician Liu’s spatial-transfer results and continued converting energy spheres as Earth Two began its seventeen-year return to JD4. The chapter traced the Mu Star Civilization’s history and its deal to raise intelligent creatures for the Insect Race, leaving its leader alarmed by the rapidly advancing human fleet and awaiting the mysterious fleet’s response.

• Hu Yu stopped preparing for construction, continued converting energy spheres, and waited for Academician Liu’s spatial-transfer results while Earth Two returned toward JD4.
• The chapter described the Mu Star Civilization’s enormous defensive fleet and its long struggle to advance beyond the advanced star system level.
• A supernova’s energy tide devastated Mu Star, and the surviving Many-Legged Beasts gradually evolved intelligence into the ancestors of the Mu Star Race.
• A mysterious fleet promised the Mu Star Civilization small star sector technology in exchange for raising high-level insects, so the Mu Star people brought in planets and confined intelligent two-legged creatures there.
• After Luo Zhigao’s fleet destroyed an Insect Race base and transport fleet, the Mu Star leader recognized the creatures as nearly identical to humans and warned the mysterious fleet about the human fleet’s rapid growth.

The Mu Star Civilization rebuilt its Insect Race farms and gained protection from the Xuan Star Civilization, while Hu Yu waited for spatial attack technology and prepared to face both powers. By the chapter’s end, JD4 had resumed Wind Master production, but its growing fleet still seemed far too small to challenge the Xuan Star Civilization.

• The Mu Star fleet destroyed most of the human fleet, and the Mu Star Civilization relocated its Insect Race farms and continued breeding captive humans through a fabricated religion.
• The Xuan Star Civilization sent two hundred million warships to the Mu Star system, and its fleet later destroyed the humans’ base planets.
• Hu Yu spent eighteen years waiting for spatial attack technology while considering how to locate the Xuan Star Civilization without alerting it.
• Hu Yu decided to postpone asking the Academy of Sciences for help and estimated that defeating the Xuan Star and Fish Horse Star Civilizations could take at least two thousand years.
• After accumulating five hundred giant energy spheres without a breakthrough in spatial attack technology, Hu Yu restarted Wind Master production, bringing JD4’s fleet to ten million ships.

Hu Yu waited for new weapons technology while secretly locating likely Xuan Star Civilization bases, then ordered a powerful new battleship built after scientists developed a rotating-space attack. The Grim Slayer’s design was completed, and production preparations began across the planets holding his main force.

• Hu Yu accumulated a thousand giant energy balls and used astronomical observations to identify two regions likely belonging to the Xuan Star Civilization and the civilization feeding the Insect Race.
• After three hundred years without a breakthrough in space technology, scientists designed miniature spacecraft that could travel at a hundred times the speed of light, and Hu Yu sent them to reconnoiter the two distant bases.
• In the 350th year, academicians discovered that rotating space combined with high-energy lasers more than doubled the attack’s power and could be used in coordinated fleet attacks.
• Hu Yu ordered the design of a new warship, and the scientists completed the five-kilometer-long Grim Slayer blueprint two years later.
• Departments began modifying production equipment while Hu Yu prepared the stored steel alloy and hollowed-out planets for building the new warships.

Hu Yu completed the Grim Slayer’s development and production preparations while a miniature spacecraft explored the Mu Star Civilization and uncovered its immense strength and human breeding worlds. A second probe then reached the Xuan Star Civilization’s territory, revealing a vast region of rearranged star systems.

• The Grim Slayer passed its tests, and Hu Yu’s bases near Earth Two began full production, with annual output reaching about 60,000 ships.
• Hu Yu redirected some production toward machinery and new production lines, aiming to raise Grim Slayer output to 100,000 ships a year within a century.
• In the 380th year, a miniature spacecraft reached the Mu Star Civilization and reported its breeding planets, population, and more than 600 million warships.
• Hu Yu learned that the Mu Star Civilization bred over a trillion humanlike creatures, prompting concern about their origins and a desire to investigate.
• The miniature spacecraft found about 200 million Xuan Star Civilization warships stationed near a Mu Star inhabited planet, confirming both civilizations served as pawns of the Fish Horse Star Civilization.
• Twenty years later, Hu Yu’s second batch of miniature spacecraft reached the Xuan Star Civilization’s territory and found a 100-light-year region of deliberately rearranged star systems.

Hu Yu discovered that the Xuan Star Civilization had an overwhelming fleet and population, making his hoped-for attack impossible. He asked Academician Zeng how long humanity would take to master space technology, but the answer left the threat of extinction unresolved.

• Hu Yu's miniature spacecraft found that the Xuan Star Civilization had over 700 million small star sector-level warships, more than two billion older warships, and a population possibly reaching 500 billion.
• Hu Yu realized the Xuan Star Civilization was still building warships and that his fleet could not defeat it, so he regretted underestimating its strength.
• Hu Yu discussed the situation with his companions and agreed that humanity had not truly reached the small star sector stage.
• Li Zhixiong connected Hu Yu to Academician Zeng, who said humanity might master space technology in a year, a hundred years, or even ten thousand years.
• Hu Yu worried that humanity would be trapped at its current technological level while the Insect Race or the great star region civilizations threatened its survival.

After a thousand years of waiting, Hu Yu and his fleet still lacked the technology to challenge the Xuan Star Civilization, and Hu Yu proposed moving a spatial vortex into enemy territory to neutralize their space weapons. The scientists began studying the idea, though they doubted they could move a vortex two light-years across.

• Hu Yu and Wen Zhonghua agreed that the fleet had reached the end of its thousand-year wait, while Hu Yu rejected attacking the Mu Star Civilization without also defeating the Xuan Star Civilization.
• Hu Yu pointed out that the Xuan Star Civilization had built a vastly larger fleet, and Wen Zhonghua’s remark about fighting inside a spatial vortex gave Hu Yu an idea.
• Hu Yu asked Academician Zeng, Academician Liu, and the other scientists to study whether they could move the spatial vortex into Xuan Star Civilization territory.
• Hu Yu and Wen Zhonghua joked about missing home while Academician Zeng and Academician Liu returned to the laboratory.
• Academician Zeng and Academician Liu discussed the vortex’s enormous size and began investigating whether it could be moved, despite their doubts.

Academician Liu tried to create a micro black hole by fusing energy spheres, hoping to use its gravity to move the space vortex into Xuan Star Civilization territory. The experiments instead opened tiny channels to the fourth dimension, and the fleet abandoned the plan without producing a stable black hole.

• Academician Zeng and the other academicians reviewed Gao Zhengyang’s data on the space vortex and continued calculating whether it could be moved into Xuan Star Civilization territory.
• Academician Liu proposed combining energy spheres beyond their critical size to create micro black holes that could pull the vortex forward.
• Academician Liu’s experiments showed that fused energy spheres opened a channel through which Basic Energy vanished, but the resulting suction could not affect matter.
• After more than a hundred experiments, Academician Liu stopped the project to preserve Earth Two’s and the fleet’s combat strength.
• The scientists considered using massive stars to create black holes, but concluded that such black holes would be too powerful to control or move.

After Academician Zeng confirmed that the fleet could not move the spatial vortex into Xuan Star Civilization territory, Hu Yu led the fleet home, accepting that they could not overcome the civilization’s advantage. During the journey, the fleet detected an impact caused by atomic fission energy, leaving Hu Yu surprised by the unexpected signal.

• Academician Zeng told Hu Yu that the fleet could not drag the spatial vortex into Xuan Star Civilization territory, and Hu Yu accepted the failure.
• Hu Yu led the fleet of eighty million Grim Slayers away after a thousand years, reflecting on the gap between their nomadic civilization and the settled Xuan Star Civilization.
• The fleet traveled through a binary-star system where two civilizations on separate planets had developed in harmony and exchanged technology.
• Hu Yu heard a faint impact aboard the battleship and suspected that a meteorite had struck it.
• The Grim Slayer's sensors identified atomic fission energy as the cause of the impact, surprising Hu Yu.

Hu Yu brought the Grim Slayer fleet to investigate a battle between black and white fleets, then entered the fight to help them communicate. After both sides mistook the Grim Slayer’s open hatch for a weapon and attacked it, Hu Yu established a connection between the fleets’ commanders, leaving the three sides ready to speak.

• Hu Yu redirected the Grim Slayer fleet toward a distant planetary system after detecting an incoming object.
• Hu Yu and his companions observed a battle between a black fleet and a larger white fleet, and Academician Zeng concluded that neither side truly wanted to fight.
• Hu Yu sent the Grim Slayer into the battlefield to help, but both fleets attacked when its hatch opened.
• The projectiles failed to damage the Grim Slayer, and Hu Yu realized the fleets had mistaken its circular hatch for a launch port.
• Hu Yu’s computer cracked the fleets’ communications, and he projected himself and both commanders into each other’s ships to begin a three-way conversation.

Hu Yu and Wen Zhonghua stopped a battle between the black and white civilizations and learned that it began over black citizens bathing in shared lakes on Planet Three. The leaders revealed that the black fleet had gone searching for water, while the opposing commanders were classmates and neither side wanted a real war.

• Hu Yu explained that the humans had no hostile intentions and summoned the Grim Slayer fleet, astonishing the black and white commanders.
• The two planetary leaders arrived, and the White Leader described how the civilizations had cooperated to settle Planet Three before disputes began over bathing in its lakes.
• The Black Leader explained that water scarcity on Planet Two had led his people to bathe in the lakes, and he revealed that 50,000 warships were searching the distant star system for water.
• Hu Yu learned that the black and white commanders were classmates, their crews were friends, and the two civilizations had studied and built warships together at the Integration Academy.

The Grim Slayer fleet gave the two allied civilizations a water-rich ice ball and melted it above Planet Three, triggering a planetary flood to replenish their water. As the civilizations watched in awe, Hu Yu and Wen Zhonghua learned that Academician Liu had confirmed a major plan was feasible, though it would require many stars and a long time.

• The Grim Slayer fleet found an ice ball containing two billion cubic kilometers of freshwater and brought it to Planet Three.
• The fleet warned Planet Three’s inhabitants to evacuate before the ice ball melted and flooded the planet.
• The ice ball melted above Planet Three, unleashing a vast flood, storms, and torrential rain that astonished the civilizations on Planet Two and Planet Four.
• Hu Yu and Wen Zhonghua discussed the flood’s destructive force and went to find the missing Academician Zeng and Academician Liu.
• Academician Liu told Academician Zeng that their plan was feasible but would require many stars and a very long time.

Academician Zeng explained a plan to create a spatial vortex inside the Xuan Star Civilization’s territory by releasing pure energy to alter spatial density and speed. Hu Yu and Wen Zhonghua learned that the plan would require converting about twenty Sun-sized stars.

• Hu Yu arrived at the laboratory, where Academician Zeng announced that the researchers had found a way to create a vortex in Xuan Star Civilization’s territory.
• Academician Zeng used a stream and a board to demonstrate how differences in spatial density and speed could create a vortex.
• Academician Zeng explained that the team would need to deliver pure energy to one side of the Xuan Star Civilization’s territory to increase spatial density and start its rotation.
• Wen Zhonghua asked how much energy the plan required, and Academician Zeng said it would take the equivalent of about twenty Sun-sized stars.

Hu Yu completed the transformation of Planet Three and left the Black and White Civilizations with advice and a genetic treatment, while the fleet still lacked a way to deliver energy spheres to the Xuan Star Civilization. After returning to Earth Two, he headed home but grew uneasy when Xiao Xiao did not answer him, then entered a curios shop.

• Academician Zeng explained that converting a Sun-sized star would produce enough energy spheres to fill Earth, but transporting twenty Earths' worth to the Xuan Star Civilization remained a problem.
• Hu Yu watched the waves settle on Planet Three, where the Black and White Civilizations salvaged materials and began adjusting to their newly water-covered world.
• Hu Yu warned both civilizations about their unstable planetary system, advised them to focus on energy research, and gave the Black Civilization a genetic treatment to reduce its skin secretions.
• Hu Yu led the fleet toward JD4 because returning to the spatial vortex would not solve the problem of transporting the energy spheres.
• The fleet returned to Earth Two, and Hu Yu felt guilty about the failed campaign before setting off for home.
• Hu Yu became worried when Xiao Xiao did not answer his communications, stopped on the way home, and entered a curios shop.

Hu Yu bought Xiao Xiao an expensive necklace and returned home after a thousand years away, expecting her anger but finding her happy to see him. The family reunited over a meal, and Hu Yu acknowledged how long his absence had been and how hard Xiao Xiao had found it.

• Hu Yu spent most of his accumulated contribution points on a necklace for Xiao Xiao, realizing he had neglected her for years.
• Hu Yu hesitated outside his home, failed to reach Hu Yunhang, and nervously went inside.
• Hu Yunhang called for Xiao Xiao, who came out of the kitchen and embraced Hu Yu in tears.
• Hu Yu gave Xiao Xiao the necklace and apologized for neglecting her, while she reassured him that she understood his work.
• Hu Yunhang told Hu Yu that Xiao Xiao had often cried while he was away, and Hu Yu admitted the fleet's effort to absorb the Xuan Star Civilization had come to nothing.
• Xiao Xiao said they would rely on themselves to advance into a small star sector civilization.

Hu Yunhang proposed using a Trojan horse scheme to make the Xuan Star Civilization carry energy balls into its own territory, where they could trigger a spatial vortex. Hu Yu accepted the idea but postponed discussing it with the fleet until morning, while Xiao Xiao teased him about his work and contribution points.

• Hu Yu explained that Academician Zeng and the others could create a spatial vortex by using energy balls made from twenty stars, but they could not transport the balls into Xuan Star Civilization territory.
• Hu Yunhang suggested making a fake base and letting the Xuan Star Civilization seize the energy balls, then carry them home themselves.
• Hu Yu praised Hu Yunhang’s plan, and the family discussed his necklace, his relationship with Xiao Wei, and Hu Yu’s drinking.
• Hu Yu tried to leave for the fleet to discuss the plan with Uncle Zhonghua, but Hu Yunhang reminded him it was the middle of the night and Xiao Xiao wanted him to stay.
• Hu Yu promised to transfer his monthly contribution points to Xiao Xiao, and Hu Yunhang went to bed.

Hu Yu organized a civilization-wide effort to perfect the Trojan Horse Plan against the Xuan Star Civilization, while Academician Zeng explained the enormous manufacturing effort needed to convert the energy spheres. The plan remained under development, and producing enough conversion equipment was expected to take about two hundred years if Grim Slayer production stopped.

• Hu Yu ended the vacation and gathered personnel to develop the Trojan Horse Plan, choosing a fake base near the vortex and planning ways for the Mu Star Civilization to pass information about it to the Xuan Star Civilization.
• Academician Zeng planned to gather 2.4 quintillion energy spheres into two planet-sized spheres that could damage the enemy and create a spatial vortex.
• Hu Yu sent the plan to Earth Two's more than 23 billion citizens for criticism, then formed a task force to draft multiple detailed plans for possible contingencies.
• Hu Yu asked Academician Zeng and Academician Liu how long it would take to convert twenty Sun-sized stars into energy spheres.
• Academician Zeng said each Sun-sized star required six trillion conversion units and estimated production would take about two hundred years if Grim Slayer manufacturing stopped.