Chapter Summaries

Hu Yu discussed the defeat of the Mechanical Civilization’s fleet with Qin Yin, then the story followed Chen Peng, Li Zhixiong, and the academicians as they built defenses and tested the Matter River’s danger zone. The chapter ended with one hundred Reapers traveling outward through the zone to investigate a conjecture, with the team waiting to see how far they could go.

• Qin Yin told Hu Yu that the swarm’s corrosion had let the Demon Scorpion warships’ electric current spread through the joined Mechanical Civilization fleet, and that the remaining mechanical consciousnesses had been eliminated.
• Hu Yu praised Qin Yin for safeguarding the fleet’s technology and said Academician Zeng and the others were facing a major problem but were doing well.
• Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong used the Matter River’s abundant matter to build defenses, restore the Reaper force to 100,000, and manufacture simplified weapons suited to fighting the swarm.
• The academicians sent one hundred Reapers into the danger zone, where they relied on relay equipment after losing direct contact beyond 10,000 kilometers.
• The Reapers were programmed to travel in different directions at high speed, collecting Basic Energy as needed, while the academicians prepared to wait for their results.

As twelve guardian god stars vanished, Yuan argued that heavenly beings might be responsible and set out to prove that their world was spherical. Thirty years later, Yuan returned to the imperial city and told the emperor that he had circled the world.

• Twelve guardian god stars disappeared, alarming the Great Cang Empire as it fought the Great Cheng Empire.
• Yuan told the emperor that the stars might have been destroyed by technologically advanced beings and proposed that their world was a sphere.
• Yuan left the imperial city to travel west from where the emperor star rose, intending to return to his starting point.
• After thirty years and a journey of 108,000 li through 139 countries, Yuan returned to the imperial city, where his former student Yang recognized him.
• Yuan told the emperor that he had circled the world and proved it was spherical, and the emperor welcomed him back.

A radiant being descended on the Great Cang Empire, granted Yuan, Yang, and His Majesty ten thousand years of life, and vanished. Yuan continued his scientific work while warning Yang that other celestial beings could threaten them, as a distant Black Demon God Cult began arresting its opponents and scientific personnel.

• A golden beam brought a radiant being to the palace, where Yuan rejected its claim to divinity and it granted Yuan, Yang, and His Majesty ten thousand years of life.
• The Great Cang Empire defeated the Great Cheng Empire, gained neighboring nations as vassals, and His Majesty dismantled the Celestial Divination Bureau and religious organizations.
• Yuan left the palace and worked on measuring the speed of light, while Yang reported the empire’s prosperity and Lord Bu’s death.
• Yuan warned Yang that celestial beings on other stars might pose a danger, and Yang left him to continue his work beneath the night sky.
• Five hundred light-years away, the Black Demon God began mass arrests of its opponents and scientific personnel on a planet divided between a technologically advanced eastern continent and a resource-rich western continent that suppressed technology.

The Grand Chieftain learned that the Black Demon God was an alien projection and ordered the eastern continent to accelerate its scientific and military development. The chapter revealed that a group of observers was deliberately using the conflict to push planetary civilizations toward space travel, and they planned to intensify the attacks.

• The Black Demon God commanded his followers to invade the eastern continent, destroy technology, and capture people for him to eat.
• The Grand Chieftain secretly built an underground city where rescued scientists could research technology and planned a path toward spacecraft and weapons.
• Sha Xu told the Grand Chieftain that the Black Demon God was a projection from an alien ship in high orbit.
• The Grand Chieftain ordered more ships to be built and people moved onto them to evade the western continent's raiders.
• A group of observers discussed pushing civilizations toward space, and one of them ordered the western continent's followers to launch a direct attack.

The Galaxy Alliance warned that a concealed Mechanical Civilization had spread through the Milky Way, prompting civilizations to build fleets and prepare defenses. Meanwhile, Li Shun returned to the Matter River with an immense insect swarm, forcing Chen Peng and the others to consider the Reception Plan as their defenses proved inadequate.

• The Galaxy Alliance announced that a Mechanical Civilization fleet had hidden scattered units throughout the galaxy and urged civilizations to develop their fleets and guard celestial bodies.
• Old Hu and his companion decided to settle near the galactic edge and build a concealed reconnaissance system while humanity developed its strength.
• Li Zhixiong warned Chen Peng that Li Shun had returned with 50 billion ships and an enormous insect swarm, expected to reach them in about a year and a half.
• Chen Peng, Zhuge Xiong, and Academician Zeng concluded their defenses could not stop Li Shun and debated contacting Academician Xiao or retreating into the Matter River.
• Academician Zeng refused to risk exposing the fleet, so the others proposed that the general carry out the Reception Plan at a point outside the galaxy.

Li Zhixiong and Chen Peng witnessed a giant bug’s leg appear in the Matter River, while Li Shun’s fleet waited behind the bug swarms. Academician Zeng revealed that a Reaper sent into the danger zone had returned, as the surviving swarms retreated after a devastating explosion.

• Li Shun ordered his fleet to follow the bug swarms into the Matter River and let them clear the defenses and trigger any dangerous weapons first.
• After a year of the swarms advancing, Li Shun sent five billion warships into the Matter River behind them.
• A violent explosion shook the base, and Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong spotted a black pillar they identified as a gigantic bug’s leg.
• Chen Peng explained that the leg belonged to a fourth-dimensional bug asserting its territory, and Academician Zeng praised his reasoning.
• Academician Zeng told Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong that one of the Reapers sent into the danger zone had returned, while the surviving bugs retreated from the Matter River.

Li Shun ordered a vast fleet to surround the dangerous zone, while the Reaper’s return revealed that it had spent five billion years inside a subordinate universe. After learning that the zone might hold a legendary defense system and vital technological advances, the academicians persuaded Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong to agree to an expedition.

• Li Shun ordered Wei Kaiyuan to send a hundred billion warships to surround the dangerous zone and destroy everything inside.
• Academician Zeng confirmed that the rusted craft was the Reaper, and Academician Li Youwei explained that five billion years had passed aboard it despite only three hundred years elapsing outside.
• Academician Zeng described the dangerous zone as a subordinate universe with different physical laws and a connection to the greater universe in the Matter River.
• Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong opposed a crewed expedition because of the risks, but the academicians argued that entering the zone might yield technology needed to protect the fleet and its people.
• Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong agreed to let the academicians enter the dangerous zone, on the condition that the academicians obey their command during the operation.

Chen Peng, Li Zhixiong, and Academician Zeng entered the danger zone with their fleet while leaving ten thousand bait Reapers behind to lure Li Shun’s forces. The bait destroyed Li Shun’s fleet when a giant fourth-dimensional worm attacked, and Li Shun realized the academicians might have found a way out of the danger zone.

• Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong agreed to enter the danger zone and planned to use simplified Reapers equipped with consciousness field simulators as bait for Li Shun.
• After preparing for a month, Academician Zeng and the others took more than 80,000 Reapers into the danger zone, leaving ten thousand bait ships behind.
• Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong stopped ten light-years from the exit to study the subsidiary universe and wait to see whether Li Shun pursued them.
• Li Shun’s fleet surrounded the bait Reapers, whose consciousness field provoked a giant worm that destroyed the Reapers and more than a billion nearby warships.
• After learning that Hu Yu’s scientists had entered the danger zone, Li Shun suspected they had discovered a way to escape.

Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong fled deeper into the sub-universe with the academicians after Li Shun pursued them, leaving the fleet lost but able to continue its research. Months later, Academician Li Youwei suspected that basic energy could be divided further, though his instruments could not confirm it.

• The Führer ordered two billion warships into the danger zone, and Li Shun's fleet followed Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong's Reapers into the sub-universe.
• Chen Peng and Li Zhixiong chose to abandon their relay devices and lead the fleet deeper into the sub-universe to evade Li Shun, despite the danger of being unable to return.
• The fleet lost contact with its relay devices, while the academicians studied how the sub-universe's rules changed farther from the entrance.
• Li Shun abandoned his pursuit, failed to damage the danger-zone exits, and left billions of warships to blockade them before returning to the insect zone.
• At Academician Zeng's request, the lost fleet traveled another five hundred light-years, and the academicians spent months gathering data.
• Academician Li Youwei told Academician Liu Bo that basic energy might be divisible into smaller components, but their microscope could not magnify it enough to verify the idea.

Academicians in a strange universe discussed why they could not use four-dimensional channels or contact their fleet, while Li Zhixiong and Chen Peng organized a National Day meal. Li Zhixiong noticed Academician Li Youwei switching chopsticks between hands, but Academician Li denied being able to use his left hand.

• Academician Zhou Xiaohua reported that four-dimensional channels and particle entanglement did not work in the region, and the academicians discussed the universe’s unusual rules and their difficulties returning to the fleet.
• The academicians identified the passage of time, loss of contact, return route, and defense system as problems they needed to investigate before their lifespans ran out.
• Li Zhixiong and Chen Peng brought food and liquor to mark National Day, and the group sang beneath the Chinese flag before sharing a meal.
• Academician Li Youwei switched his chopsticks to his left hand while eating, and Li Zhixiong noticed and joked about his ambidexterity.
• Academician Li Youwei denied being able to use his left hand and suggested Li Zhixiong’s eyes were playing tricks on him.

Academician Liu Bo and the others discovered that the sub-universe mirrored their habitual thinking, making them unexpectedly skilled with their left hands. They theorized that it was a 3.5-dimensional space connecting universes, but still did not know how to leave it.

• Academician Li Youwei demonstrated that he could use his left hand skillfully, surprising his longtime colleagues.
• Academician Liu Bo concluded that the sub-universe was a mirror image, and the group found they could all use either hand with ease.
• Academician Zhou Xiaohua proposed that the universe existed in 3.5 dimensions, connecting different universes or allowing one universe to exist within another.
• Academician Liu Bo explained that mirrored directions had caused the released ship and signals to travel away from their intended paths, while relay equipment had helped the ship return.
• The group discussed the universe’s faster passage of time and the absence of detected particles, then agreed that more experiments were needed to understand it and find a way out.

The academicians celebrated a breakthrough in the mirror sub-universe, then struggled to determine its strange flow of time and structure. In the year 43800, Hu Yu learned that more Star Ring Alliance civilizations were advancing, and he approved sharing four-dimensional communication technology before the alliance faced what lay ahead.

• The academicians discussed how their discovery of a mirror universe might relate to left-handedness and toasted their breakthrough.
• The academicians began investigating time in the mirror sub-universe, where the Reaper had traveled for billions of years while only centuries passed in the main universe.
• In the year 43800, Hu Yu heard that the Zhalong Star Civilization and the Quaking Star Civilization had successfully tested space attacks, while the Sand Star Civilization and the South Star Civilization were expected to follow.
• Hu Yu learned that alliance civilizations were adopting human technology and culture, and he ordered the four-dimensional channel technology made public.
• Yang Fan reported that Yuan had arrived.

Hu Yu welcomed Great Cang Civilization’s leaders and explained that he intended to accelerate weaker civilizations’ development to strengthen the fight against the Insect Race. A Crystal envoy then warned him that rumors claiming Human Civilization had obtained the Matter River’s defensive system could draw pressure from civilizations across the galaxy.

• Hu Yu received His Majesty Great Cang, Yuan, and Yang, praised Great Cang’s rapid development, and promised it a resource-rich planet and scientific assistance.
• Hu Yu told Wen Zhonghua, Gao Jianchuan, Yang Fan, and the others that he planned to raise selected stellar-level civilizations into small star sector civilizations to help fight the Insect Race.
• Hu Yu explained that the civilizations would receive incomplete military technology and remain outside the Star Ring Alliance’s decision-making ranks.
• Gao Jianchuan reported that the Crystal Civilization’s envoy had arrived, and Hu Yu welcomed the envoy to Earth Four.
• The Crystal envoy warned Hu Yu that rumors said Human Civilization had obtained the Matter River’s defensive system and that other civilizations might pressure or probe them for it.

Wen Zhonghua and Hu Yu learned that fourteen Small Star Sector Advanced Civilizations might target humanity over rumors of a defensive system. Hu Yu mobilized the Star Ring Alliance for war, but preparations were interrupted when two Great Star Region warships appeared near Earth Four.

• Crystal Envoy warned Wen Zhonghua that fourteen Small Star Sector Advanced Civilizations might believe humanity had acquired a defensive system and attack.
• Wen Zhonghua and Hu Yu discussed the threat and agreed to prepare for a possible war, while ruling out the Fish Horse Star Civilization as the source of the rumors.
• Hu Yu ordered the Star Ring Alliance to produce and deliver combat supplies, and the North Star Civilization and Brilliant Star Civilization joined the Reaper fleet.
• Two enormous warships emerged from the fourth dimension near Earth Four, bypassing humanity's three-dimensional defenses.

Hu Yu learned that the Yun San and Heavenly Peak Civilizations had come to ask about the Matter River defense system and warn Human Civilization about approaching fleets. Heavenly Peak revealed that high-order insects had spread the news, and Hu Yu prepared for a war that would test humanity while greater civilizations watched.

• Hu Yu told Yun San and Heavenly Peak that Human Civilization had not obtained the Matter River defense system and that its scientists were missing in the danger zone.
• Yun San and Tian Feng warned Hu Yu that several fleets were heading toward Human Civilization, while promising to restrain Dark Moon and Rock Star and keep the fourth dimension stable.
• Heavenly Peak told Hu Yu that the insects had spread the news and explained that high-order insects were involved in a larger race against the galaxy’s civilizations.
• Hu Yu realized other civilizations wanted to test humanity, and Heavenly Peak said the small star sector fleets would arrive within a year.
• Hu Yu thanked Heavenly Peak and agreed to prepare for the coming battle.

Hu Yu prepared the Star Ring Alliance for an invasion by hiding its inhabitants, organizing the fleets, and assigning defenses as eight enemy fleets surrounded the base. The Falling Star Civilization demanded entry, but Hu Yu refused, leaving both sides poised for battle.

• Hu Yu had Ninety-Seven move the alliance’s inhabited planets beyond the galaxy and bring the Tree Race elders to support the defense.
• Hu Yu learned that eight fleets totaling about four hundred billion warships had gathered outside the Space Barrier, including forces from the Falling Star Civilization and the Flying Bear Civilization.
• Dongdong and the leaders of the alliance’s six civilizations placed their fleets under Hu Yu’s command, and Hu Yu assigned them to defend against the approaching forces.
• Hu Yu ordered the Twentieth Fleet to attack the Flying Bear Civilization with the planetary cannon, while the other fleets and Tree Race elders took defensive or mobile positions.
• The Falling Star Civilization demanded that the humans open a passage and surrender the defense system, but Hu Yu rejected its demands and challenged it to break through.

Hu Yu’s messages briefly sowed suspicion among the attacking civilizations, but their joint fleet eventually launched an assault on humanity’s defensive perimeter. After months of heavy fighting, both sides had suffered enormous losses, and the Reapers were struggling against the enemy’s powerful space attacks.

• Hu Yu sent messages accusing the Flying Bear Civilization of betraying its old allies, then followed up with an encrypted message intended to delay the attacking fleets.
• The Flying Bear Civilization and Falling Star Civilization argued with the other civilizations, but after half a month the eight fleets formed a joint force and attacked the defensive perimeter.
• Wen Zhonghua ordered four fleets to stop the joint fleet’s advance while four more fleets and two Stinger formations attacked the Flying Bear Civilization and Falling Star Civilization.
• The alliance fleet arrived and attacked the joint fleet, but the Reapers and the two advanced civilizations’ fleets suffered under powerful space weapons and Stinger attacks.
• After several months of fighting, the joint fleet had lost forty billion warships and the alliance fleet had lost twenty billion.

The human alliance opened a gap in its spatial defenses to lure the enemy fleet inside, then secretly closed the passage and prepared an ambush. The Falling Star Civilization and two allied fleets entered the empty region, unaware that human forces were watching them.

• The Flying Bear Civilization and Falling Star Civilization argued over their failed attack and decided to keep the human fleet pinned down while waiting for weapons from their base.
• Gao Jianchuan proposed opening a passage in the defense perimeter to lure the combined fleet inside, and the human commanders approved his plan.
• Gao Jianchuan cleared a circular passage through the spatial defenses, prompting the Falling Star Civilization to lead a 100-billion-warship force into it despite Flying Bear's warnings.
• The human alliance withdrew its ships, stars, and planets from the target region and secretly repositioned spatial defenses to close the passage and prepare an ambush.
• The human commanders watched as the enemy fleet entered the perimeter and found the region empty of human warships.

The human alliance used Stingers to destroy the two Small Star Sector Intermediate Civilization fleets supporting the Falling Star Civilization, but the Falling Star fleet’s tight formation remained impervious to attack. Academician Qin Yin proposed using energy spheres and Academician Zeng’s Space Density Theory to disrupt the space around the fleet.

• The alliance trapped the Falling Star combined fleet inside the defensive perimeter, where opposing space attacks created a stalemate and the Falling Star fleet could not receive supplies.
• Wen Zhonghua and Jianchuan sent 40 billion Stingers into the chaotic space, where their first attack waves struck the combined fleet.
• The Stingers destroyed more than 30 billion warships and, within five hours, wiped out the fleets of the two Small Star Sector Intermediate Civilizations.
• The Falling Star fleet held its formation against the alliance’s attacks, and Wen Zhonghua asked Yang Fan and then Qin Yin for a way to break it.
• Qin Yin proposed firing energy spheres into the space occupied by the Falling Star fleet to create an abnormal spatial density using Academician Zeng’s Space Density Theory.

Qin Yin devised a way to weaken the Falling Star Civilization’s spatial attacks, allowing the Alliance and Tree Race to destroy its invading fleet. The survivors then headed toward the Alliance’s hidden planets, forcing Hu Yu to split his forces between interception and moving the planets farther away.

• Qin Yin proposed firing energy spheres to raise spatial density, and Hu Yu ordered all nineteen Alliance fleets to attack as soon as the effect took hold.
• The energy spheres weakened the Falling Star Civilization’s spatial attacks, and the Alliance and Tree Race overwhelmed its 20 billion warships.
• The Tree Race elders crushed the enemy ships at close range, annihilating the invading fleet within a month without losing a regular Alliance warship.
• The remaining Falling Star Civilization forces argued with the Flying Bear Civilization and set out toward the edge of the galaxy to search for inhabited planets.
• Hu Yu ordered six fleets to intercept the survivors while leaders of the Sand Star Civilization and South Star Civilization moved the hidden planets farther away.