Chapter Summaries

After more than seven months of travel, Hu Yu’s fleet passed the Kuiper Belt and began accelerating toward Barnard’s Star, leaving the Solar System behind. Hu Yu commemorated the departure with a fleet-wide flare display as civilians said goodbye to Earth and the Sun.

• The Polaris Fleet illuminated Sedna as it passed without approaching, and people aboard watched the last planet of the Solar System recede.
• Hu Yu reviewed the fleet’s long journey, supply limits, and precautions with Yang Fan, insisting that patrols remain vigilant against debris.
• The fleet left the Kuiper Belt and began its second acceleration phase toward 0.3 times the speed of light.
• Hu Yu ordered the J-85 squadrons to release 2,185 flares to commemorate leaving the Solar System.
• Civilians held farewell activities and wept as they said goodbye to Earth and the Sun.

Hu Yu joined an emergency meeting after an alien spacecraft took control of the Polaris fleet, then the alien introduced itself as the Lord Inspector and judged humanity’s civilization. The chapter ended with the leader asking the inspector to explain civilization levels.

• Hu Yu traveled from Ship Five to Ship One for an emergency meeting with the leader and senior officials.
• The leader revealed that an unidentified point of light had disabled fleet controls and fighter attack systems, leaving the Polaris fleet unable to maneuver or defend itself.
• The officials chose to signal the approaching object with lights, and it stopped beside the fleet and revealed itself as a silver alien spacecraft.
• The spacecraft projected a scaled alien creature, which identified itself as the Lord Inspector of Star Sector 98511 and said it had taken control of the fleet’s computers.
• The inspector said humanity had reached only the early stage of a stellar-level civilization and that its own civilization had advanced to a small star sector level.
• The leader respectfully asked the Lord Inspector to explain civilization levels.

The Inspector destroyed sixteen Polaris ships and threatened to eliminate half of humanity for carrying mother bugs. A Destroyer intervened, stopped further attacks, and told the human leader that he had come to remove the bugs and explain the Milky Way’s history.

• The Inspector explained the galactic civilization hierarchy and said he had come to investigate a possible bug passage in the Solar System.
• The Inspector secretly probed the fleet, destroyed twelve Polaris ships, and then demanded that humanity choose half its population for elimination.
• The leader pleaded for humanity, but the Inspector destroyed four more Polaris ships when the leader refused to choose.
• A blue ship intercepted the Inspector’s next attack, and the Destroyer ordered him to investigate elsewhere.
• The Destroyer apologized to the human leader, promised to clear the bugs from the Solar System, and began recounting the Milky Way’s history.

The Destroyer explained the Milky Way’s history of civilization wars and the bug invasion, revealing why the Galactic Alliance was formed and why lower-level civilizations were left to develop independently. The chapter ended with the leader asking whether dimensional or wormhole technology could carry major star region civilizations beyond the Milky Way.

• The Destroyer described how billions of civilizations fought across the Milky Way before the bugs arrived through higher-dimensional channels and overwhelmed much of the galaxy.
• The Destroyer explained that five major star region civilizations united with other civilizations to halt the bugs, then formed the Galactic Alliance to search for a way to defeat them.
• The Destroyer said patrollers and Destroyers were assigned to monitor civilizations because the major star region civilizations feared renewed bug activity.
• The Destroyer told the leader that lower-level civilizations were free to develop and might discover a way to eliminate the bugs, while only minor star region civilizations could join the Galactic Alliance.
• The leader asked where the bugs came from, and the Destroyer said a star-river-level civilization had associated a possible bug nest with the Abyss.
• The leader asked whether major star region civilizations could leave the Milky Way using dimensional or wormhole technology, and the chapter ended before the Destroyer answered.

After hearing the Destroyer’s account of the Milky Way, the fleet’s leaders reconsidered their route and decided to divide the survivors into three groups with different approaches to developing their civilization. The Leader assigned the groups and announced that the Long River Project could begin.

• The Destroyer explained that the bugs might serve an unknown advanced civilization, then left to deal with them in the Solar System.
• After losing sixteen ships and more than eighty million residents, the fleet regrouped and the Leader called for a reassessment of their destination.
• Director Xu and Defense Minister Luo Zhigao warned that the fleet was vulnerable and that heading to Barnard's Star could bring it into the reach of a stronger civilization.
• The Leader decided to divide the 234 remaining Polaris ships into three groups: Luo Zhigao would lead fifty ships on a risk-taking path, General Hu Yu would lead one hundred on a balanced path, and the Leader would lead eighty-four conservatively.
• The Leader assigned personnel to the groups, and Luo Zhigao and Hu Yu promised to preserve the spirit of the Chinese Nation after they parted.
• The Leader announced that the Long River Project could begin and asked Academician Xiao Yi to explain it.

Academician Xiao Yi revealed that genetic modification could prevent aging and gave the leader’s group a supply of the medicine to consider using. The leader divided the survivors into groups that would travel in different directions across the Milky Way, and they parted with a promise to meet again in the Solar System.

• Academician Xiao Yi explained that a genetic modification inspired by the insect race had kept his cells renewing and could prevent death from old age, then showed the group a bottle of pills.
• The leader told the other academicians to study the medicine’s use and risks, and said Academician Xiao Yi would travel with General Hu Yu.
• The leader proposed that his group head toward the galaxy’s edge while Luo Zhigao’s and Hu Yu’s groups traveled in opposite directions, avoiding the galactic center until they grew stronger.
• The leader warned that quantum communications could fail and suggested they return to the Solar System every hundred thousand years to meet, or send a message if they could not return.
• The groups tearfully embraced and said goodbye as the leader waved them off.

Hu Yu led Polaris No. 5’s fleet away from the leader’s ships and set a course for Tau Ceti, where the fleet hoped to replenish supplies and build up its strength. As the journey began, Hu Yu organized the fleet’s scientific institutions and prepared to modify the population with the immortality gene.

• Hu Yu and the officials chose Tau Ceti as their first destination, with UV Ceti as a backup, and ordered the fleet to prepare for departure.
• Academician Xiao Yi recommended giving the immortality gene to the population and rebuilding scientific training, while Academician Zeng Zhaoyuan supported the plans.
• Hu Yu’s staff finalized and checked the route data, and the leader approved the departure with a brief farewell.
• Hu Yu led one hundred Polaris ships into space, sent fast probes toward Tau Ceti, and left the J-85 escort fighters with the leader.
• Hu Yu established an Academy of Sciences aboard the fleet and announced genetic modification, prompting a strong reaction among the people.

Hu Yu’s fleet survived an intense radiation burst and learned that the Sun had exploded, destroying the Solar System. After grieving and vowing revenge on the Insect Race, Hu Yu asked Academician Zeng Zhaoyuan how stars could be destroyed or created, but the fleet lacked the technology to do either.

• Hu Yu expanded opportunities for civilians to earn fleet contribution points and genetic medicine through study, technical work, and volunteering.
• An intense radiation burst struck the fleet, but its Chong Element armor and magnetic fields limited the damage.
• Hu Yu learned that the Sun had exploded and that the Solar System had been destroyed, likely to eliminate the invading Insect Race.
• Hu Yu swore to kill the Insect Race and ordered his crew to keep news of the Sun from the fleet’s civilians.
• Hu Yu consulted Academician Zeng Zhaoyuan about ways to destroy or create stars, and Zeng explained that the fleet could not yet achieve either.

Hu Yu learned that curvature travel and directional magnetic field control had made early progress, though neither was ready for practical use. After the solar explosion severed communication with the Leader and Minister Luo, he chose to lead his fleet independently as it continued toward Tau Ceti.

• Hu Yu asked Academician Zeng about curvature travel, and Zeng explained its principles and how Chong Element polymers had moved a model ship in laboratory tests.
• Academician Zeng said curvature travel could move a J-90 only slightly faster than walking, while low energy efficiency and a divided research team hindered progress.
• Academician Zeng described work on controlling magnetic field lines to contain energy, which could enable larger curvature drives and make antimatter storage and weapons more practical.
• Wen Zhonghua reported that radiation from the sun's explosion had disabled most quantum communicators, leaving Hu Yu unable to contact the Leader or Minister Luo.
• Hu Yu considered sending unmanned ships with replacement communicators, but Wen Zhonghua and Academician Zeng urged him to act independently.
• Hu Yu accepted responsibility for his fleet and asked Academician Zeng to continue developing curvature travel and magnetic field control before they reached Tau Ceti.

After the Pathfinders confirmed Tau Ceti had no signs of civilization, Hu Yu prepared the fleet to settle there and reached Planet Five, the system’s richest source of minerals. He sent 80,000 J-90s to bombard the airless planet with fusion bombs to begin mining operations.

• After more than thirty years in space, Hu Yu worried about the fleet’s deterioration and the possibility that Tau Ceti was occupied by an advanced civilization.
• Pathfinder One surveyed Tau Ceti’s first planet, and later Pathfinder Five and the other craft completed a preliminary survey that found no signs of civilization.
• Hu Yu ordered billions of small warning satellites launched around Tau Ceti to detect approaching objects.
• At the end of 2285, the fleet reached Tau Ceti and moved into orbit around Planet Five, a frigid rocky world with unusually high metal content.
• Hu Yu ordered 80,000 J-90s to fly above Planet Five and drop a dense barrage of fusion bombs.

Hu Yu established mining and industrial operations on Planet Five and built bases and factories on Planet Three to prepare Tau Ceti for colonization. Two years later, steel production had reached ten million tons a day, and the fleet had created fifteen orbital space docks to support its planned expansion.

• Hu Yu bombarded Planet Five to sterilize its surface, expose metal-rich magma, and prepare it for mining, then sent landing craft and equipment to establish operations there.
• Hu Yu surveyed Tau Ceti’s planets and selected Planet Three as a habitation and industrial base because it had milder temperatures, while Planet Five became a dedicated mining site.
• The survey team found no life or water in the system, and personnel began assembling modular residential buildings on Planet Three.
• Two months later, Planet Five produced its first 300,000 tons of steel, enabling the fleet to build larger mining machines and expand smelting capacity.
• Hu Yu ordered more than 80 Polaris ships connected into fifteen orbital space docks after the fleet found no suitable asteroid for shipbuilding.
• Two years later, Planet Five produced ten million tons of steel daily, and hundreds of bases filled with production lines had been completed on Planet Three.

Hu Yu learned from Academician Zeng Zhaoyuan that magnetic-field technology had produced a working curvature engine, promising much faster travel and enabling gravity bombs. Zeng hinted at another major innovation but had not yet revealed it.

• The exploration team found a biologically safe ice ball two hundred astronomical units from Tau Ceti, and Hu Yu sent two Polaris ships to install engines and haul water back.
• Hu Yu visited Academician Zeng Zhaoyuan on Planet Three to ask about the progress of curvature travel.
• Zeng showed Hu Yu a prototype curvature engine built from controlled magnetic-field lines and explained that it could propel residential ships at 0.5 times the speed of light and smaller warships at around three times the speed of light.
• Zeng explained that curvature engines required Chong Element, which was scarce, and could also provide artificial gravity or be modified into gravity bombs that attacked ships from within.
• Hu Yu celebrated the breakthrough, and Zeng offered to show him one more major invention.

After fifty years at Tau Ceti, Hu Yu’s family discussed how the fleet’s relentless work had drained everyday life of social contact and joy. Hu Yu recognized the problem and called an urgent meeting to consider changing the situation.

• Hu Yu and a weapons official discussed the new antimatter bomb, its limited supply, and possible future weapons such as a space bomb.
• Forty-odd years passed, and Hu Yu argued with his adult son Hu Yunhang about his military rank while Xiao Xiao teased them both.
• At dinner, Xiao Xiao told Hu Yu that people needed richer lives beyond work, and Hu Yunhang agreed that social interaction mattered.
• Hu Yu left dinner to summon the department heads for an urgent meeting about the fleet’s work-centered lives.
• Hu Yu told the meeting that people had become like machines and asked why laughter and social connection had disappeared.

Hu Yu ordered the fleet to improve people's quality of life, and a hundred entertainment centers helped restore their morale and work efficiency. As the fleet's warships and residential ships neared completion, its scientists prepared to pursue research whose possible consequences even Hu Yu could not imagine.

• Hu Yu accepted responsibility for the people's exhaustion and ordered mandatory time off, a hundred entertainment centers, safe tourism routes, and regular group activities.
• Within just over eight months, the fleet completed the entertainment centers, and the people began enjoying their free time and working more efficiently.
• Hu Yu inspected the lively centers and felt relieved that Xiao Xiao had reminded him to address the people's morale.
• After nearly fifty years of development, 500,000 Hunter-Killer warships entered their final testing phase alongside 300 Deep Blue residential ships and other fleet vessels.
• Hu Yu authorized Academician Xiao Yi's biology team to conduct any experiments that would not endanger the fleet, while the team's work remained highly secret.

Hu Yu and Academician Zeng Zhaoyuan oversaw successful warp tests that sent the Deep Blue and Hunter-Killers faster than light, but the tests damaged quantum communications and exposed a new problem. Academician Zeng began investigating the cause and hinted that the Academy of Sciences was developing another communication method.

• Academician Zeng Zhaoyuan installed sixteen warp engines on the Deep Blue and successfully sent it to Planet Three in 63 minutes and 17.39 seconds at 0.81 times the speed of light.
• One hundred Hunter-Killers completed a warp test in 8 minutes and 45.23 seconds, reaching nearly six times the speed of light and prompting the fleet to celebrate humanity's first faster-than-light travel.
• Hu Yu praised the scientists at a grand celebration and thanked Academician Zeng Zhaoyuan and his team for their work.
• Academician Zeng told Hu Yu that the tests had damaged most quantum communication links and suggested that entangled particles might actually be a single particle.
• Hu Yu agreed to give the Academy of Sciences time to study the phenomenon and discussed the fleet's growing need for a scalable communication system.
• Academician Zeng revealed that his team had begun researching a new communication method but kept its details secret.

Hu Yu and his advisers assessed a hostile fleet approaching Tau Ceti and ordered the human fleet to prepare for evacuation rather than risk an immediate battle. The enemy appeared far stronger and more numerous, and the chapter left Hu Yu’s forces racing to move their resources and complete their preparations.

• Hu Yu left Academician Zeng’s office and reflected on the limits of civilizations’ knowledge of the universe’s rules and the threat of the Abyss.
• Wen Zhonghua told Hu Yu that satellites in several regions had been destroyed, and the fleet identified an approaching alien force traveling at about half the speed of light.
• A precision satellite captured an image of an alien warship roughly 800 meters across, while Wen Zhonghua reported that the 500,000 Hunter-Killers still needed curvature engines.
• Hu Yu ordered the fleet into a state of emergency, directing factories to prioritize curvature engines and crews to transfer machinery, water, and other resources onto ships.
• Academician Zeng and Academician Xiao advised against contacting the aliens until preparations were complete, reasoning that the enemy might view the fleet as prey and could be relocating its population.
• Academician Zeng estimated that the enemy had at least a million warships and a speed advantage, while explaining that human ships traveled faster because they used superheavy Chong element from the Insect Race.

Humanity prepared to evacuate Tau Ceti and install warp engines as Hu Yu braced for an imminent conflict. The approaching Sand Python Civilization viewed humanity as food and advanced toward the system with a fleet of 1.2 million warships.

• Hu Yu, Wen Zhonghua, and the academicians planned to prioritize warp-engine production, equip the Deep Blue first, and evacuate people and equipment while it traveled at 0.4 times the speed of light.
• Hu Yu ordered the remaining civilians to prepare to board and told Wen Zhonghua to oversee Tau Ceti while he studied the enemy and planned the defense.
• The Sand Python leader rejected Aguduo's warning and declared that humanity would replenish the fleet's depleted food stores.
• The chapter recounted how the resource-starved Sand Python Civilization left its home system, preyed on other civilizations, and grew into a fleet of 1.2 million warships.
• The Sand Python fleet captured humanity's monitoring satellites and judged them evidence of a weak stellar-level civilization as its flagship approached Tau Ceti.
• A Sand Python staff officer asked whether humanity's warships might have shields.

Hu Yu and Wen Zhonghua prepared Tau Ceti’s defenses against an approaching, larger enemy fleet, laying out a plan to lure and surround it while weighing the risks to their pilots. As the Deep Blue fleet departed and Hunter-Killers took their positions, Hu Yu sent two unarmed transports to contact the enemy and seek a peaceful resolution.

• Hu Yu rejected Wen Zhonghua’s dismissal of an unusual threat possibility and told the staff officers to include it in their contingency plans.
• Hu Yu chose human pilots to command Hunter-Killer warships with AI assistance, accepting the danger to the soldiers as necessary preparation for battle.
• Wen Zhonghua proposed hiding Hunter-Killers around Planet Five, Planets Three and Four, and near Tau Ceti, while sending forty thousand ships on a concealed flanking route.
• Hu Yu ordered the forces deployed, required communications security, and approved using eighty thousand J-90 fighters to harass the enemy.
• The Deep Blue fleet departed Tau Ceti with sixty thousand Hunter-Killers escorting it, while the remaining ships and pilots concealed themselves at their assigned positions.
• Hu Yu sent two disarmed transport ships toward the enemy with messages identifying the Chinese Nation’s territory and asking the approaching fleet to identify itself, state its intentions, and change course.

Hu Yu and Academician Zeng recognized that the Sand Python Civilization planned to deceive and plunder humanity, and inferred that its people ate other intelligent species. They offered the Sand Python fleet a monitored stop at Planet Five, hoping to lure its warships into a trap while concealing 200,000 Hunter-Killers near Tau Ceti.

• The Sand Python leader ordered Aguduo to tell humanity that the Sand Python Civilization was peaceful and wanted supplies, while offering faster-than-light technology and delicacies in exchange for a planetary stop.
• The Sand Python leader and Aguduo ate a living Star Herder, and the chapter recounted how the Sand Python Civilization had conquered Pasture Star and slaughtered its inhabitants.
• Hu Yu, Wen Zhonghua, and Academician Zeng analyzed the Sand Python message and concluded that the aliens were brutal predators seeking to plunder humanity.
• Academician Zeng proposed allowing the Sand Python fleet to stop near Planet Five under human surveillance, and Hu Yu explained that the plan would draw the enemy toward a trap focused on its population ships.
• Hu Yu ordered the message sent while 200,000 Hunter-Killers remained concealed near Tau Ceti.

Hu Yu’s forces ambushed the Sand Python Civilization fleet near Planet Five, turning the encounter into a costly battle despite being outnumbered and outmatched. The fight continued after gravity bombs inflicted heavy damage, while the human fleet’s larger sneak-attack force had yet to appear.

• Aguduo and the Sand Python leader planned to deceive the humans, while Hu Yu used the negotiations to prepare an ambush and position fleets around Planet Five.
• After the Sand Python warships separated from their civilian fleet and advanced toward Planet Five, both sides launched attacks when they came within range.
• The Hunter-Killers and J-90 fighters charged into the Sand Python fleet, causing confusion; the Sand Python fleet lost 50,000 ships while the humans lost many warships and fighters.
• Aguduo divided his fleet to pursue the retreating humans and destroy the AI-controlled attackers, and all 30,000 of those Hunter-Killers were eventually destroyed.
• Hu Yu ordered more than 100,000 gravity bombs launched, and over 20,000 took effect, crushing or disabling nearby Sand Python warships.