Chapter Summaries

Li Zhixiong devised a plan to create chaos among the insect swarms so the fleet could escape the insect line. The decoy Reapers drew the swarms away, but the first Reaper was surrounded and overwhelmed by insects.

• Li Zhixiong proposed separating Reapers from the fleet and using them to lure the swarms away from the insect line.
• Chen Peng transmitted new orders between the Reapers through concealed electromagnetic ports.
• A thousand decoy Reapers broke formation, waited half a month, then shed their biological armor and attacked the swarms as they fled.
• Li Zhixiong led the disguised Reapers through the resulting chaos while the swarms split up to chase the decoys.
• The fleet slipped toward a warship outside the swarms, but the first Reaper was surrounded and its weapons could not kill enough insects.
• The insects targeted the Reaper's space cannon opening, exploiting its brief exposure whenever the weapon charged.

The academicians’ fleet continued its journey toward the Matter River after the Reapers self-destructed to escape the swarm. A colossal high-tier bug intercepted the fleet, leaving Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong facing an enemy they could not safely fight.

• The Reapers killed millions of bugs before self-destructing, while the other Reapers also detonated and the attacking bugs continued searching through space.
• Academician Zeng asked Chen Peng about the fleet’s progress, and he said they had traveled five thousand light-years with twenty-five thousand still to go.
• The fleet detected a giant bug wrapped around a planet, and it tore the planet apart as it uncoiled and accelerated toward them.
• Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong identified the powerful spatial fluctuations as evidence of a high-tier bug and halted the fleet rather than risk a fight.
• The tens-of-thousands-of-kilometers-long bug blocked the fleet’s path, approached with its mouth open, and left even Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong shaken.

The fleet disguised itself as worms and talked its way past a giant worm before continuing through swarm territory. After discussing the dangers of surveillance, Chen Peng proposed hiding their movements by getting all the worms moving.

• The giant worm ordered the fleet to return to the defensive line, and Academician Zeng advised Chen Peng to claim they were pursuing a civilization's fleet.
• The giant worm accepted the explanation but warned them to leave, and the fleet went around it without being followed.
• Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong admitted their fear, while Academician Zeng explained how high-level worms might observe space through the fourth dimension.
• Li Zhixiong argued that flying outside the galaxy would expose the fleet to surveillance along its edges, and the group agreed to continue through swarm territory.
• Chen Peng suggested that they get all the worms moving so the fleet could hide in plain sight.

Zhuge Xiong and the academicians used a forged order about an invading civilization fleet to provoke the insect swarms into searching space and fighting among themselves. When the search began to die down before the fleet reached the Matter River, the Reapers shed their camouflage to stir the insects up again, and one Reaper was caught and dragged from a star by a giant insect.

• Zhuge Xiong ordered the Reapers to spread a false message that an insect king had commanded the swarms to search for an invading civilization fleet.
• The swarms spread the false report across half the galaxy, searching for the nonexistent fleet and fighting one another as they traveled.
• After two years, the search slowed while the fleet still had about eight thousand light-years to go before the Matter River, so Zhuge Xiong said the Reapers would provoke the swarms again.
• A Reaper shed its biological armor inside a star, attracting nearby insects that attacked it with ranged strikes and swarmed around it.
• A giant insect bit into the Reaper's Reversed State Armor and pulled the ship out of the star.

The fleet reached the outskirts of the Matter River but found it guarded by an alert swarm, forcing Zhuge Xiong and the others to search for a way through. A small meteorite’s abnormal trajectory drew their attention just as a high-tier bug approached, and the surrounding swarm began closing in.

• The Reaper destroyed a giant bug with its antimatter and energy spheres, then self-destructed and killed hundreds of thousands of nearby bugs.
• The fleet took advantage of the distraction to approach the Matter River, where the swarm maintained a dense defensive perimeter a thousand light-years out.
• Zhuge Xiong and the others decided to circle the perimeter and look for a weak point rather than attempt a direct breach.
• Academician Liu Bo spotted a watermelon-sized meteorite whose speed and trajectory differed from its expected course, but the group decided not to touch it.
• Zhuge Xiong detected a high-tier bug moving toward the fleet at 4,800 times the speed of light and ordered the space cannons and Virtual Matter prepared.
• A fiery-red beetle-like bug appeared near the flagship as the surrounding swarm converged, and the fleet prepared a three-dimensional firing net.

The Reaper fleet killed a strange red bug that had detected their disguise, then claimed its territory and resumed its journey toward the Matter River. Zhuge Xiong and another academician suspected the meteorite reconnaissance device had revealed the fleet to the bug.

• The fleet used Virtual Matter arrows to kill the red beetle, and a Reaper swallowed its body for later study.
• Academician Zeng had Li Zhixiong proclaim the fleet as the new regional king, causing most of the swarm to retreat.
• Chen Peng surrounded a giant worm with the Reapers, and the worm submitted to him.
• Chen Peng ordered the worm to guard the region and watch for invading civilizations before the fleet headed toward the Matter River.
• Zhuge Xiong and another academician suspected the red beetle had found them through information sent by the meteorite reconnaissance device.

As the fleet neared the Matter River, the humans debated the attacker’s identity and prepared for the swarm’s growing hostility. With space near the river apparently blocked and the fleet low on energy, they chose to force their way through, leaving the story as the Reapers’ charge ignited the swarm.

• Chen Peng, Li Zhixiong, Academician Zeng, and Zhuge Xiong discussed who had controlled the red beetle and agreed to stay alert during the journey.
• The fleet reached the swarm’s defensive line, five light-years from the Matter River, as nearby swarms gathered and watched it.
• Zhuge Xiong’s computer detected no unusual spatial fluctuations along the route but indicated that space around the Matter River seemed blocked off.
• Chen Peng and Academician Zeng argued that the fleet should charge through despite its low energy and the risk of leaving ships behind.
• The fleet sent orders by electromagnetic waves, kept the four-dimensional channel in place, and the Reapers shed their biological armor and charged toward the Matter River, provoking the swarm.

The Reapers fought five giant bugs and tens of thousands of high-tier bugs, suffering heavy losses while trying to delay the swarm. As the main fleet faced the threat of being caught, Academician Zeng offered an idea to protect the academicians while splitting up the Reapers.

• The Reapers split into groups to intercept five giant bugs and the pursuing high-tier swarm.
• The giant bugs destroyed all 5,000 Reapers sent against them, while the remaining fleet struggled to hold off the other bugs.
• A Reaper flew into a high-tier bug’s mouth and self-destructed, killing it, but the remaining bugs became cautious and avoided opening their mouths.
• Zhuge Xiong and Li Zhixiong discussed splitting the fleet into 70,000 groups to escape through the Matter River, but Li Zhixiong objected to leaving the academicians undefended.
• Academician Zeng said he had an idea that could protect the academicians while helping the fleet escape.

Humanity’s fleet used repeated decoy splits to escape the giant worms, losing more than thirty thousand Reapers before reaching the Matter River. As the fleet approached the dense region, its warp travel nearly stopped, and the academicians began investigating the strange spatial conditions.

• A commander explained how the fleets would split repeatedly to mislead the giant worms, and Li Zhixiong accepted the strategy.
• The worms pursued several decoy fleets while the main forces converged, then destroyed more than six hundred Reapers and later annihilated the Reapers intercepting the other worms.
• The remaining fleets gathered after losing more than thirty thousand Reapers and continued toward the Matter River, leaving the worms several light-years off course.
• Chen Peng slowed the fleet near the Matter River, where the crew observed its dense fields of meteorites and unusual arrangements of stars and matter.
• The fleet’s warp engines barely moved the warships, and the academicians measured spatial density at a thousand times the galactic norm.

The fleet began mapping the Matter River with Wildcats and Bees, then discovered Li Shun’s enormous fleet heading out from deep inside it. Academician Zeng and the generals debated whether to attack or seek answers, leaving their response undecided.

• The fleet agreed to map the Matter River and search for its danger zone before attempting to enter it.
• Wildcats deployed Bees and surveyed the river while computers plotted safe exploration routes.
• A Wildcat spotted Li Shun’s fleet, numbering at least ten billion ships, as it headed toward the river’s edge.
• The Wildcat returned to the flagship with images of Li Shun’s fleet, prompting the crew to recognize their old adversaries.
• Chen Peng asked Academician Zeng how the fleet should respond, and Academician Li Youwei warned that Li Shun might have concealed his fleet’s true strength.
• Li Zhixiong urged an attack, but Chen Peng argued for finding out Li Shun’s intentions and potentially turning the humans into allies.

The Reapers blocked Li Shun's fleet at the Matter River's exit, intending to capture him, but Li Shun revealed that he had brought an enormous swarm of red beetles under his control. The Reapers faced attacks from the beetles outside and Li Shun's fleet within the river, leaving them with only a slim chance of survival.

• Li Zhixiong persuaded the Reapers to intercept Li Shun's fleet and capture him alive, and they blocked the fleet's route out of the Matter River.
• Li Shun contacted the Reapers through a disguised reconnaissance device, revealed he was aboard his fleet, and challenged them to try to capture him.
• Li Shun's fleet stopped inside the Matter River, and Zhuge Xiong ordered the Reapers to prepare for battle while they searched for other threats.
• Red beetles emerged from asteroids near Li Shun's fleet and began flying toward the Reapers, with more than two hundred thousand appearing.
• Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong realized Li Shun had likely controlled the beetles and that they had wrongly blamed the Fish Horse Star Civilization.
• Zhuge Xiong judged that the Reapers were surrounded by beetles and Li Shun's fleet, and proposed entering the Matter River as their best chance to survive.

The Reaper fleet entered the Matter River to escape the outer swarms, only to be pursued by millions of red beetles as its weapons ran low and spatial weapons failed. With the fleet surrounded, Academician Zeng proposed detonating a nearby neutron star, and Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong argued that the plan could destroy most of the swarm without drawing in the bugs outside.

• Chen Peng sent Li Shun a threat before the fleet entered the Matter River, while Li Shun taunted him about capturing the fleet’s key figures.
• The Reapers fired antimatter bombs into the Matter River and fled inside, where asteroids slowed the pursuing swarms more than they slowed the ships.
• Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong attacked the beetles with energy orbs, killing tens of thousands, but the swarm grew to twenty million and learned to dodge the blasts.
• The fleet’s weapons dwindled, spatial weapons failed, and the beetles began surrounding the Reapers from every direction.
• Academician Zeng proposed detonating a neutron star to destroy the swarm, and Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong supported the plan while warning that some beetles might survive.

Academician Zeng explained how the fleet could use magnetic field lines to trigger the neutron star’s explosion and discussed the limits of neutron-degenerate matter as a weapon. Meanwhile, the Reapers faced attacks from beetles, while another fleet worried about their losses and continued preparing the Reception Plan.

• Academician Zeng explained that the neutron star’s weak magnetic field and unusual space would let the fleet convert its matter into energy and make it explode.
• Academician Zeng said the fleet could collect little neutron-degenerate matter from the explosion and could not equip ships with it on a large scale.
• Beetles caught up with the fleet, clung to the Reapers, and tore into their armor with their mandibles.
• Old Hu and another fleet member discussed the academicians’ dwindling fleet, speculated that the Reapers were fighting, and hoped Academician Zeng and the others would survive.
• Old Hu and his colleague discussed the costly Reception Plan, which had moved stars along a stellar road for ten thousand light-years with help from the Carina Civilization.

The fleet prepared to detonate the neutron star, using its blast to weaken the swarm while protecting the warships. After ten Bees vanished beyond the star, the fleet split up, and 20,000 Reapers drew the bugs toward the planned battlefield.

• Chen Peng reported that the Bees had found nothing unusual within ten thousand astronomical units, while the search continued.
• The academicians explained that the Reversed State Armor could withstand the neutron star's blast and planned to draw the swarm to about 50,000 kilometers from its center.
• The fleet learned that ten Bees had disappeared 0.2 light-years beyond the neutron star and decided to analyze their final data while fighting the swarm.
• The fleet split, and 20,000 Reapers charged the swarm to pull it toward the neutron star.
• The bugs surrounded the Reapers; those that bit through a ship's armor often died from the energy impact inside it.

The Reapers survived the neutron star’s expansion and explosion, while Li Shun’s fleet prepared to pursue them into the Matter River. Wei Kaiyuan proposed driving Hu Yu’s fleet into the last unexplored danger zone.

• Magnetic field lines converted the neutron star’s matter into energy, then the star expanded and its matter trapped the Reapers and insect swarm.
• The neutron star’s beta decay and second explosion killed the insects, while the Reapers survived and the energy wave illuminated the surrounding Matter River.
• Chen Peng and Zhuge Xiong learned that Li Shun’s fleet had reached the Matter River’s entrance, and they planned to replenish their energy and escape.
• Li Shun raged over the loss of twenty million red beetles and discussed how to capture Hu Yu’s fleet with Wei Kaiyuan.
• Wei Kaiyuan suggested using part of Li Shun’s fleet to pressure Hu Yu’s fleet into the remaining danger zone.

As the Reapers pursued the Bees through the Matter River, a colossal, unexplained explosion struck near the danger zone and scattered both their fleet and Li Shun’s forces. The Reapers paused to investigate, while Li Shun survived outside the blast and ordered his fleet to avoid Hu Yu’s people.

• Li Shun and his subordinates discussed relocating bases and preventing Hu Yu’s researchers from returning to him.
• Under Li Shun’s orders, two billion saucer-shaped warships pursued the Reapers into the Matter River as the Reapers headed toward the danger zone.
• A vast explosion shook the Reaper fleet, and the researchers discovered its immense blast zone stretched across their previous route.
• Li Shun learned that his deployed fleet and the escaped red beetles had been wiped out, blamed Hu Yu and the old man, and ordered his forces to stay away.
• The Reapers remained still for half a month, sent Bees back to investigate, and concluded that Li Shun was likely alive and had stayed outside the blast.

Academician Zeng and the fleet investigated the danger zone after mapping its giant hand-shaped boundary, and Academician Liu Bo proposed that it was an entrance to folded space. The Wildcats released inside the zone lost radio contact and began flying erratically, leaving the crew uncertain whether they could return.

• The Bees mapped the danger zone and found that it formed a giant hand whose boundary made spacecraft disappear.
• Academician Zeng sent a Reaper across the boundary, then ordered robots to inspect it after its bow vanished and reappeared.
• Academician Liu Bo suggested the zone was an entrance to another region of three-dimensional folded space and recommended releasing small spacecraft to test it.
• The Reaper released three Wildcats into the dark space, where Li Zhixiong reported that radio contact with them had failed.
• The Wildcats continued flying beyond their return distance, and one sped away from the Reaper until it disappeared from view.

The academicians investigated mysterious spatial effects in the Matter River while Hu Yu’s alliance spent ten thousand years expanding its fleet, population, and allied civilizations. At the end of 40000 CE, the Crystal Civilization delivered a box that could contact a great star region civilization.

• The last Wildcat reestablished contact and returned to the Matter River, where Academician Zeng and the others considered why ships lost radio contact and navigation.
• The academicians continued their research as Hu Yu and Chen Peng prepared to build defenses and a base in the Matter River.
• Over ten thousand years, the alliance grew to 80 billion Reapers and 500 billion people while its ships repelled insect swarms.
• With human scientists’ help, the North Star Civilization and Brilliant Star Civilization advanced to small star sector civilization status, while other allied civilizations approached the same threshold.
• At the end of 40000 CE, the Crystal Civilization’s Terminators delivered Hu Yu a box for contacting a great star region civilization.

Hu Yu met face-to-face with the Crystal Envoy, who warned him about the great star region civilizations governing their territory and the dangers of accepting missions from them. The Envoy identified the Demon Scorpion Civilization as a likely culprit behind the insect swarm that had devastated the Xuan Star Civilization's territory.

• Hu Yu invited the Crystal Envoy to visit, but the Envoy declined because he had to investigate a possible high-energy physics experiment.
• The Crystal Envoy emerged from his spaceship and told Hu Yu that the Yun San Civilization governed both their civilizations' region.
• The Envoy warned Hu Yu not to accept dangerous missions from the Yun San Civilization and described the Demon Scorpion Civilization's history of underhanded tactics against promising smaller civilizations.
• Hu Yu showed the Envoy coordinates for the Xuan Star Civilization's former territory and recounted the insect swarm that had descended there.
• The Crystal Envoy concluded that the Demon Scorpion Civilization had likely caused the swarm's appearance.

Hu Yu and Zhonghua discussed the worsening danger from the swarm and discovered that the Wind Star Civilization and its planets had disappeared. Hu Yu ordered the alliance to strengthen its forces, protect the Tree Race, and search for the Xuan Star Civilization and Minister Luo's group while investigating the galaxy through photon channels.

• Hu Yu spoke with a crystal envoy about the swarm, the defensive line, and the difficulty of protecting lower civilizations.
• Zhonghua told Hu Yu that the Wind Star Civilization had vanished along with every planet in its territory sometime in the past two thousand years.
• Hu Yu ordered scientists to help alliance civilizations advance and sent support, shipbuilding machines, and possible civilian settlers to Ninety-Seven to protect the Tree Race.
• Hu Yu ordered a search for the Xuan Star Civilization and Minister Luo's group, starting with photon channels and avoiding areas near the defensive line.
• Humanity's photons had spread throughout the galaxy through the Seeding Plan, and brief four-dimensional connections could reveal information while severing the photons' entanglement.