Chapter Summaries

Humanity’s Grim Slayers were devastated by the Fish Horse Star warships, but the remaining fleet pressed toward the Mu Star Civilization’s inhabited planets. As the battle reached the territory’s center, a small ship escaped from a human-breeding planet and vanished into warp.

• Li Zhixiong’s Grim Slayers lost more than 500,000 ships to the Fish Horse Star warship’s spatial-cutting attack, and Hu Yu destroyed the remaining wreckage.
• The Fish Horse Star commander taunted humanity over its search for the secret of the humans bred on Mu Star, then moved to intercept the advancing Grim Slayers.
• The Fish Horse Star warships caught up with the Grim Slayers and raced ahead to defend Mu Star’s inhabited planets, concentrating fifty ships around the planet where its leader and governing bodies were located.
• The Mu Star Civilization sent its billion crewed warships to hold back the Grim Slayers while the Fish Horse Star fleet attacked, but the human fleet kept breaking through at a heavy cost.
• A small spaceship emerged from beneath a human-breeding planet, entered warp flight, and vanished from Mu Star Civilization territory.

The Fish Horse Star Civilization destroyed the Grim Slayers and saved the Mu Star Civilization’s last planet, while humanity began studying recovered Xuan Star warships. As Hu Yu prepared to leave, a spacecraft carrying humans who had escaped the Mu Star Civilization’s territory arrived and asked to board.

• The Fish Horse Star warships destroyed the Grim Slayers, leaving the Mu Star Civilization with one surviving planet and its civilization intact.
• Humanity’s academicians analyzed intact Xuan Star warships and tested a replica to learn how its spatial attacks worked.
• Hu Yu planned to search for the Treant Civilization’s territory to rescue Zhang Yuanshan and Ninety-Seven once the academicians had studied the new technology.
• A small spacecraft approached the Grim Slayer fleet and contacted humanity, asking for help because its energy was nearly exhausted.
• The spacecraft’s occupants explained that they were humans who had escaped from the Mu Star Civilization during the battle and asked to enter humanity’s life-support chambers.

Hu Yu questioned Wei Kaiyuan and Guan Sengping, two human successors who had escaped captivity under the Mu Star Civilization. Their account raised suspicions about the origins of Hu Yu’s own branch of humanity, and he agreed to arrange their return to their people after his fleet completed its mission.

• Wei Kaiyuan and Guan Sengping entered the life-support chamber and recovered from their journey in the Grim Slayer.
• Wei Kaiyuan explained that the Mu Star Civilization held his people captive and periodically took them away, while successors secretly preserved the truth and hoped to rescue them.
• Wei Kaiyuan described how a gravitational wave revealed that a group of their people had survived elsewhere and developed into a Small Star Sector Civilization.
• Hu Yu told Wei Kaiyuan and Guan Sengping that the Mu Star Civilization was feeding their people to the Insect Race.
• Hu Yu questioned whether Wei Kaiyuan’s people had created his branch of humanity, but Wei Kaiyuan could not confirm it.
• Hu Yu agreed to arrange a spaceship to return Wei Kaiyuan and Guan Sengping to their people on the second spiral arm after the fleet returned to base.

Hu Yu and the academicians investigated the First and Second Spiral Arms while the Grim Slayer returned to the Nebula Region, confirming Wei Kaiyuan’s account and discovering a human civilization whose disc-shaped warships resembled legendary flying saucers. Wei Kaiyuan and Guan Sengping arrived on Earth Four, where Hu Yu promised to take them to meet their people after the fleet had recovered.

• Hu Yu and the academicians decided to bring Wei Kaiyuan and Guan Sengping to the Nebula Region and send miniature spaceships to investigate both Spiral Arms.
• Academician Zeng explained that the First Spiral Arm might contain battle wreckage from the war that had taken two planets from the humans’ former civilization.
• Three years later, miniature spaceships found ancient battle debris in the First Spiral Arm and a human civilization in the Second Spiral Arm with more than two hundred million disc-shaped warships.
• Hu Yu concluded that Wei Kaiyuan had told the truth and brought the Grim Slayer into the Nebula Region near Earth Two.
• Hu Yu transferred Wei Kaiyuan and Guan Sengping to Earth Four, arranged a quiet residence, and promised to take them to the Second Spiral Arm after the fleet rested.
• Wei Kaiyuan and Guan Sengping explored Earth Four with guards and saw the confident, prosperous human civilization there.

Academician Xiao reunited with Number One, who reported that his group had freed all the branch consciousness entities and built its first galactic-class warship. Number One detected an unusual second layer in the consciousness fluctuations of Xiao’s two visitors, and Xiao revealed they belonged to another branch of humanity.

• Old Hu and his companion planned a visit to the second spiral arm with 50 million warships and 10,000 guards.
• Number One returned to Earth Four after more than five hundred years away and told Academician Xiao that all the branch consciousness entities had been freed.
• Number One announced that his group had completed its first galactic-class warship, and Academician Xiao advised them to prioritize growing their population.
• Number One told Academician Xiao that Wei Kaiyuan and his companion had faint, unusual fluctuations in their consciousness fields.
• Academician Xiao revealed that the two visitors belonged to another branch of humanity, and Number One said the existence of two human branches was nearly impossible.

Academician Xiao prepared to travel to the territory of a group of humans despite Number One’s warning, while he and Hu Yu found no evidence that Wei Kaiyuan or Guan Sengping had acted suspiciously. Meanwhile, the academicians analyzed the Xuan Star Civilization’s space weapons and identified a new direction for developing a powerful long-range attack.

• Number One told Academician Xiao that the fleet planned to leave once it reached ten million ships, and Xiao urged Number One to prepare for the dangers ahead.
• Academician Xiao compared Wei Kaiyuan and Guan Sengping’s brainwave data with their statements, but found nothing unusual; Hu Yu decided the trip should proceed with its contingency plans in place.
• Academician Zeng reported that the academicians had analyzed the Xuan Star Civilization’s Space Cage and Space Barrier technologies and explained how each worked.
• Academician Liu argued that Space Cage and Space Barrier were not yet suitable for large-scale installation, while Wen Zhonghua asked whether studying them had been worthwhile.
• Academician Liu said that their findings had given him a direction for developing Space Shockwave, a directional attack he expected could match or exceed Space Barrier’s power.

Hu Yu led a fleet to the Second Spiral Arm, where he met another branch of humanity and escorted Wei Kaiyuan and Guan Sengping back to their people. The chapter ended with the branch’s head of state welcoming Hu Yu and his companions.

• Hu Yu decided to prioritize research on spatial shockwave technology while preparing to use the Space Barrier to defend future settlements.
• Fifty million Grim Slayers carried supplies and more than ten thousand people on a four-year journey to the planetary system Wei Kaiyuan had identified.
• Hu Yu sent a greeting signal, and the other branch of humanity directed his fleet to stop a hundred light-years from its planetary system cluster.
• A formation of a hundred million disc-shaped warships welcomed the fleet, and Hu Yu followed a small spacecraft to the branch’s hidden main planet.
• Wei Kaiyuan and Guan Sengping reunited in tears with their head of state, who then welcomed Hu Yu and his companions.

Hu Yu and his companions met Head of State Li Shun and learned that their two branches of humanity shared remarkable similarities. After welcoming them with a banquet, Li Shun proposed cooperation and invited them to review his fleet, while Hu Yu kept his group’s true loyalties and caution in mind.

• Hu Yu met Li Shun, who introduced himself as the supreme leader of his branch of humanity and arranged a residence for the visitors.
• After Li Shun left, Hu Yu and his companions used ordinary conversation and coded phrases to warn one another to stay cautious.
• Li Shun hosted Hu Yu and his party at a large banquet, but his constant talk about the food prevented Hu Yu from asking about the civilization’s origins.
• The next morning, Li Shun proposed that Hu Yu’s group move into his civilization, and Hu Yu explained that he represented only one-third of his branch and could not decide for its leader.
• Li Shun invited Hu Yu and his companions to review the fleet from space, and Hu Yu agreed to follow his arrangements.

Hu Yu and Head of State Li Shun compared their civilizations’ weapons, and Hu Yu’s Grim Slayer demonstrated an attack that impressed Li Shun. The two leaders then turned to the question of whether their human civilizations shared a connection.

• Head of State Li Shun showed Hu Yu and his delegation saucer-shaped warships twisting and destroying target ships with spatial attacks.
• Hu Yu modestly described his fleet’s past defeat by the Mu Star Civilization while withholding its victory over the Xuan Star Civilization.
• Li Shun offered Hu Yu’s civilization spatial-attack technology and a senior position if it joined his civilization, but Hu Yu said he would consult his leaders.
• Two Grim Slayers arrived at three thousand times the speed of light, and one destroyed half a target ship with a contained energy sphere.
• Hu Yu asked Li Shun whether the two human civilizations’ shared origins were a coincidence, and Li Shun proposed discussing it below.

Hu Yu questioned Head of State Li Shun about the origins of their two human branches and learned of Li Shun’s people’s migration and survival. Their discussion of cooperation turned hostile when Li Shun implied Hu Yu’s leader might not exist, and Hu Yu accused him of trying to detain them.

• Head of State Li Shun recounted how his people fled the Insect Race, crossed the galaxy, and rebuilt their civilization after repeated hardships.
• Li Shun said nearly a trillion humans remained captive as food for the Insect Race, but he refused to rescue them; Hu Yu insisted his own side would save any survivors.
• Hu Yu asked whether Li Shun’s people had visited Earth, and Li Shun denied they could have interfered with humanity’s origins.
• Hu Yu remained suspicious of Li Shun’s account because of the coincidences linking the two human branches and their warships.
• Li Shun dismissed Hu Yu’s need to consult his leader about cooperation, and Hu Yu accused him of intending to force them to stay.

Head of State Li Shun tried to force Hu Yu and Earth’s people to join his civilization, then revealed that the figure confronting them was a holographic projection. As Gao Jianchuan led ten thousand armored guards to rescue Hu Yu, Li Shun claimed the planet and its defenses had been prepared to capture him.

• Hu Yu rejected Li Shun’s demand to join his people to Li Shun’s civilization, and Li Shun threatened to seize their fleet and technology and kill most of their people.
• Wen Zhonghua signaled the guards, who surrounded Hu Yu, Wen Zhonghua, and the two academicians with concealed energy spheres.
• Li Shun revealed that he was a physical holographic projection, and Hu Yu ordered the guards to stand down while trusting his fleet to rescue them.
• Gao Jianchuan led ten thousand armored guards out of the three Grim Slayers toward Hu Yu, while enemy aircraft and bombs attacked them.
• Li Shun said his army could defeat the guards with pinpoint strikes and claimed the room was designed to protect him while he captured Hu Yu.

Gao Jianchuan led the guards through Li Shun’s defenses while the Grim Slayers destroyed the saucer-shaped fleet and evacuated Hu Yu and the academicians. The rescue succeeded, and Hu Yu’s forces took control of the planet, but Li Shun had escaped.

• Gao Jianchuan sent ten million Grim Slayers to move Hu Yu’s planet while the rest fought the 200 million saucer-shaped warships.
• Gao Jianchuan ordered the guards to detonate their energy spheres together, blasting a path through the planet’s firepower network.
• Hu Yu refused Li Shun’s request to stop the attack, and Gao Jianchuan broke through the wall and rescued Hu Yu and the academicians.
• The Grim Slayers moved the planet and destroyed every saucer-shaped warship without losing a ship.
• Hu Yu’s forces took control of the planet, spared its population of over a billion, and discovered that Li Shun had fled.

After relocating the planet, Hu Yu’s fleet searched for Head of State Li Shun and investigated the civilization, whose society was rife with crime and corruption. Interrogating captured officials, Hu Yu learned that Li Shun likely used advanced holographic projections and remained hidden.

• Gao Jianchuan ordered the fleet to halt after the Grim Slayer moved the planet, and the search for Li Shun began.
• After several days without finding Li Shun, the guards arrested key officials while academicians cracked the planet’s core server and found no important information.
• Hu Yu’s fleet uncovered widespread crime and corruption, and Hu Yu contrasted the civilization’s selfish society with the values of his own fleet.
• Hu Yu threatened captured officials with being sent into the planet’s orbit, and they agreed to cooperate.
• The officials said they had never met Li Shun in person and explained that his advanced projections could appear and act like real people, leading Hu Yu to doubt that he had met Li Shun himself.

Hu Yu learned that Li Shun had hidden his civilization’s scientists and technology elsewhere and that Li Shun’s interest in humanity was tied to a secret about their origins. After Li Shun escaped, Hu Yu’s fleet left his territory with more questions, including a strange familiarity in the consciousness fields of its inhabitants.

• Hu Yu learned that the planet was only a meeting place, while the scientists and important technology had been moved elsewhere, and he requested spacecraft navigation records.
• Li Shun told Hu Yu that he had sent spacecraft to the Third Spiral Arm after learning a secret about humanity’s origins, but refused to reveal it and said his civilization would soon fight at the Insect Race defensive line.
• At a distant base, Li Shun ordered continued research into spatial technology and planned to develop his civilization into a Great Star Region Civilization before the Milky Way’s stable state reached its critical point.
• Hu Yu collected information without harming the planet’s human inhabitants, then led the Grim Slayer fleet away; his people studied fragments of Li Shun’s disc-shaped warships.
• Wen Zhonghua reported sensing a faint, familiar quality in the consciousness fields of Li Shun’s people, and Hu Yu and the others discussed why Li Shun had wanted humanity to join him and what the secret might be.

General Hu Yu asked Academician Zeng and Academician Liu to find the Treant Civilization so they could wake Zhang Yuanshan and Ninety-Seven. The academicians developed several search plans, but the safest option required a journey beyond the Milky Way that the Grim Slayer might not have enough energy to make.

• General Hu Yu asked Academician Zeng and Academician Liu to find the Treant Civilization and help wake Zhang Yuanshan and Ninety-Seven.
• Academician Liu Bo proposed that the Treant Civilization might have cut space off from the galaxy rather than folded it, which could explain why it did not move with the galaxy.
• Academician Zeng and the other researchers proposed searching with miniature probes, scanning with ships, or comparing photographs of the Milky Way from different distances.
• The academicians calculated that taking useful photographs from beyond the galactic disk would require traveling at least one hundred thousand light-years out, while the Grim Slayer could likely manage only about twenty-five thousand light-years.
• General Hu Yu told Academician Zeng to decide how they would proceed.

Hu Yu approved a long-range survey to search for the Treant Civilization and discussed dimensional technology with the academicians. Six fleets set out to photograph the Milky Way, while Hu Yu prepared to leave the Nebula Region with Academician Xiao and the human worlds.

• Hu Yu ordered small spacecraft, escorted partway by Grim Slayers and transport ships, to travel as far as possible and photograph the Milky Way from multiple angles.
• An academician explained to Hu Yu how advanced civilizations might use dimensional technology for attacks, and the academicians affirmed their resolve to master the fourth dimension.
• Six fleets departed toward regions above, below, and beside the galactic disk to begin a survey expected to take at least two hundred years.
• Hu Yu visited Academician Xiao and said Earth Two, Earth Four, and more than twenty base planets were about to leave the Nebula Region.
• Academician Xiao agreed that Number One and the others needed to face challenges beyond their protected home.

Hu Yu and Academician Xiao visited the Aquila Civilization and saw how its planet had become a heavily armed fortress. Number One revealed that the strange consciousness fluctuations they had recalled did not belong to either group of humans.

• Hu Yu and Academician Xiao arrived on the Aquila planet, where Number One and the other Nebula branch consciousness entities welcomed them and showed them an Earth Two-style room they had maintained for hundreds of years.
• The Aquila representatives showed Hu Yu and Academician Xiao the planet’s antimatter defenses, underground factories, and curvature engines, while Academician Xiao urged them to consider their people’s needs.
• The Aquila representatives said they wanted to explore the Milky Way and grow strong enough to help Hu Yu, then displayed millions of warships for him to name.
• Hu Yu named the Aquila warships the Gyrfalcon, and Academician Xiao advised the Aquila representatives to provide education and encourage diverse ideas among their growing population.
• Number One asked about Hu Yu’s trip to the other human territory, and Hu Yu said they had faced a scare but come through safely.
• Number One said the strange consciousness fluctuations he had recalled belonged neither to Hu Yu’s humans nor to the other group of humans, shocking Hu Yu.

Hu Yu and Academician Xiao said farewell to the seven little ones of the Aquila Civilization, then led the fleet out of the Nebula Region to establish a permanent home in the JD6 Planetary System. The fleet settled near a life-bearing planet and prepared to grow stronger while studying primitive evolution.

• Number One told Hu Yu and Academician Xiao that the two people’s hidden consciousness fields had seemed unusually different, deepening their suspicions about Head of State Li Shun and his people.
• Hu Yu gave the seven little ones a storage device containing survival guidance and the civilization’s history of war, then he and Academician Xiao departed the Aquila Civilization.
• Hu Yu’s fleet left the Nebula Region and traveled through the wider universe toward the insect swarm’s defensive line.
• Hu Yu chose a lush, uninhabited planet in the Monoceros Ring as a place to study species evolution and settled the fleet’s planets in the JD6 Planetary System.
• The fleet later brought two more planets into the system, where its population reached forty billion and its people began preparing for a permanent settlement.

Academician Liu completed Space Shockwave technology, and Hu Yu delayed producing new Grim Slayers while Liu pursued a stronger faster-than-light version. As the fleet continued building its strength and settling its base, a spacecraft from a nearby star system-level civilization arrived at the defensive perimeter.

• Academician Liu tested Space Shockwave against a target ship and a Grim Slayer with reversed-state armor, destroying the first but failing to damage the second.
• Liu warned Hu Yu that spatial attacks consumed enormous energy and proposed combining Space Shockwave with rotating space to create a stronger faster-than-light weapon.
• Hu Yu agreed to postpone Grim Slayer production while Liu continued developing the weapon, noting that the fleet already had 200 million ships and needed to build up steadily.
• The fleet expanded its preparations with automated industry, a growing population of scientists, and energy gathered from two enormous stars.
• A spacecraft from the star system-level civilization Hu Yu had encountered near JD6 approached the Grim Slayer defensive perimeter, 200 years after he destroyed its surveillance equipment.

The Brilliant Star Civilization sent Little Black to thank humanity and propose an alliance among six stellar-level civilizations. Hu Yu and Academician Zeng agreed to meet the other leaders and discuss whether an alliance could work, and the leaders arrived on Earth Four for negotiations.

• The Brilliant Star Civilization contacted humanity, and Hu Yu welcomed Little Black and his two attendants to Earth Four.
• Little Black proposed an alliance, and Academician Zeng invited the leaders of the six allied civilizations to discuss it with humanity.
• Hu Yu questioned whether weaker civilizations could be trusted, while Academician Zeng argued that shared interests could bind an alliance together against future enemies.
• Little Black reassured the other leaders that humanity had shown no hostility and had no reason to target their civilizations.
• Months later, Little Black arrived on Earth Four with the leaders of the Sand Star, Zhalong Star, Quaking Star, South Star, and North Star Civilizations, and Hu Yu welcomed them into a specially adapted conference room.