Chapter Summaries

Hu Yu sacrificed the Tau Ceti battlefield to destroy the pursuing Sand Python fleet and sent the surviving Hunter-Killers toward the Sand Python residential fleet. The surprise attack was detected and began a desperate assault while the Sand Python leader protected his mothership.

• Aguduo ordered the Sand Python fleet to use linked laser nets and combined warships, devastating the Hunter-Killers at Tau Ceti.
• Hu Yu ordered the surviving Hunter-Killers to retreat and told the surprise-attack force to attack the Sand Python residential fleet, while preparing Plan Zero despite the crew trapped in escape pods.
• Hu Yu sent a spacecraft carrying thirty kilograms of antimatter into Tau Ceti, then warped the human fleet away as the star erupted and destroyed the Sand Python fleet pursuing them, along with the human escape pods left behind.
• The surviving Hunter-Killers joined the attack on the Sand Python residential fleet after their approach was discovered, while 200,000 Sand Python warships formed a tight guard around their mothership.
• The Sand Python leader raged over Aguduo's lost fleet while eating a Star Herder.

Humanity captured the Sand Python fleet after gravity bombs killed its leader, then began salvaging its ships and technologies. Hu Yu ordered the fleet to retreat toward Tau Ceti, rebuild its strength, and prioritize faster warp travel and AI-controlled warships.

• Gravity bombs killed the Sand Python leader and the creatures aboard the mothership, causing the surviving warships to flee and the civilization’s fleet to collapse.
• Human assault teams seized the residential ships and mothership, finding surviving Sand Pythons fighting among themselves and captives from three other civilizations operating some ships.
• Hu Yu ordered Hunter-Killers to tow the damaged captured ships around Tau Ceti’s energy storm toward the third planet.
• Hu Yu counted 190,000 surviving Hunter-Killers and 1.5 million lost crew members, while Academician Zeng Zhaoyuan reported that the captured technology could improve laser blades, antimatter bombs, and gravity bombs.
• Hu Yu ordered scientists to prioritize warp technology, rebuild at least a million Hunter-Killers, and develop AI control to reduce future personnel losses.
• Hu Yu confirmed that he would preside over the memorial service for the fallen crew members.

After the fleet mourned its 1.5 million fallen service members, Hu Yu focused on rebuilding and upgrading its forces before other civilizations could discover Tau Ceti. The chapter ended with 600,000 Improved Hunter-Killers equipped with advanced engines and weapons patrolling the system as the fleet prepared for the dangers ahead.

• Hu Yu delivered a eulogy at the memorial, accepted responsibility for the deaths, and urged the fleet to honor the martyrs by building a safe future.
• The fleet launched the Immortal, carrying the fallen service members’ personal effects toward the Solar System, while surviving Hunter-Killers and civilians paid their respects.
• Hu Yu prioritized rebuilding the fleet as scientists analyzed captured Sand Python technology and engineers began producing upgraded Hunter-Killers.
• The fleet completed 600,000 Improved Hunter-Killers, whose warp engines, AI, and reduced crews surpassed the original plans.
• The Improved Hunter-Killers received laser blades, antimatter bombs, and enhanced gravity bombs as antimatter production rose and the fleet prepared for renewed threats.

Humanity’s fleet left Tau Ceti for Alpha Centauri, while a mysterious Patrol armed the surviving Sand Python fleet and ordered it to destroy humanity. Aboard the Deep Blue ships, Hu Yunhang asked to return to frontline duty, but Hu Yu told him to focus on his responsibilities and training.

• Hu Yu sent 300 Deep Blue ships, escorted by 600,000 Improved Hunter-Killers, toward Alpha Centauri to develop safely and analyze alien technology.
• The surviving Sand Python fleet regrouped under Ma Meng, who planned to attack humanity before a silver spaceship blocked their path.
• The Patrol identified himself as belonging to sector 98511, promised Ma Meng advanced technology, and gave the Sand Pythons two hundred years to find and destroy humanity.
• Ma Meng accepted the Patrol’s terms as the Sand Python fleet received unfamiliar technology, while Hu Yu remained unaware of the plot against humanity.
• Hu Yunhang asked Hu Yu for permission to join the frontline fleet, and Hu Yu told him to consult his commanding officer and concentrate on his duties.
• Hu Yu left for a late contingency-planning meeting, and Hu Yunhang went to instruct the recruits.

Hu Yu, Wen Zhonghua, and the academicians discussed the fleet’s vulnerabilities and future plans before Academician Zeng Zhaoyuan explained that quantum entanglement failures during warp travel had led researchers to confirm the existence of a fourth dimension. The discovery opened a new research direction, though Zeng cautioned that mastering dimensional technology would not make humanity a Great Star Region Civilization.

• Hu Yu raised concerns that the enormous Deep Blue residential ships made the fleet vulnerable, and Academician Xiao Yi proposed leaving willing settlers and equipment on suitable planets.
• Hu Yu and Wen Zhonghua discussed training more scientists, increasing the birth rate, expanding residential choices, and preparing to settle a habitable planet near Alpha Centauri.
• Academician Zeng Zhaoyuan explained that researchers believed entangled quanta were a single particle connected through the fourth dimension, and that warp-induced space deformation could sever that connection.
• Zeng linked the fourth dimension to instantaneous electron orbital transitions and the stability of electrons despite their radiating energy.
• Hu Yu praised the confirmation of fourth-dimensional space, while Zeng said humanity had few researchers in the field and still had much to learn.
• Wen Zhonghua asked whether dimensional mastery would surpass Great Star Region Civilizations, and Zeng warned that technological leadership in one field would not make humanity their equal.

Academician Zeng explained how the fleet could use four-dimensional passages to build a resilient communications network, while Academician Xiao described cloning and engineered creatures intended to help prepare for the Insect Race. The discussion ended when Wen Zhonghua spotted a giant cyan ox carrying an angry old man just outside the porthole.

• Academician Zeng explained that energized entangled particles could form four-dimensional passages and that the fleet could use them to build a relay network between warships.
• Academician Zeng described how ships could shut down unused passages and warned that destroying a passage released enormous energy.
• Academician Xiao revealed that the biological ship had resumed cloning and created terrifying engineered creatures in preparation for possible conflict with the Insect Race.
• Wen Zhonghua saw a giant cyan ox and a white-haired old man outside the porthole, startling everyone in the room.

The fleet encountered Zhou Dao, an ancient human who had survived for millennia after aliens abducted him and who reached them aboard a biomechanical black bull. Learning that Earth and the Sun were gone, he mourned his lost home, then agreed to stay with the fleet for a day in exchange for food while they studied his bull.

• Hu Yu let the old man and his black bull enter the ship after the crew saw him waiting outside in the vacuum.
• The old man ate the crew’s food, introduced himself as Zhou Dao, and explained that he survived in space using a force field and a biomechanical bull.
• Zhou Dao recounted how aliens abducted him after he left Jiayuguan Pass, and how he escaped about a thousand years ago aboard the bull he built.
• The crew told Zhou Dao that the Sun had been destroyed and Earth was lost; he wept, then accepted the news and recovered.
• Hu Yu invited Zhou Dao to stay with the fleet, and Zhou Dao agreed to spend a day there while the crew studied his bull and Wen Zhonghua served him food.

Daozi entertained the fleet with stories about the Insect Race before revealing that a hostile civilization was pursuing him and that a damaged insect-deployment bubble lay nearby. After he left, Hu Yu and the others assessed the threat and their route toward the Insect Race frontier.

• Wen Zhonghua treated Daozi to a feast and learned that stage-twenty-five insects could travel and attack at warp speeds.
• Daozi described escaping a massive insect swarm and refused to explain what he knew about the Abyss.
• Daozi warned the fleet that a late-stage star system-level civilization was pursuing him and revealed the location of a damaged four-dimensional space bubble before departing on the Azure Ox.
• The academicians reported that studying the Azure Ox had yielded reserve technologies roughly equivalent to half the Sand Python Civilization's technological wealth.
• Hu Yu estimated the pursuers were at least a thousand light-years away and suspected Daozi had stolen something important or secret information from them.

Hu Yu’s fleet built a four-dimensional communications network and searched for the bubble Daozi had mentioned, but the search failed as an enemy fleet closed in. With the fleet facing likely destruction, Hu Yu prepared to preserve its people and civilization, while Academician Zeng proposed one last experiment.

• Academician Xiao Yi and Academician Zeng Zhaoyuan argued that Daozi had learned a dangerous secret and that the fleet should seek the four-dimensional space bubble he had described.
• Hu Yu ordered a four-dimensional communications network completed and sent Hunter-Killers to search nearby space while the Deep Blue Fleet stayed hidden.
• The network was completed, improving fleet communications, but five hundred thousand Hunter-Killers and hundreds of millions of satellites failed to find the bubble over several years.
• A distant satellite detected five enormous warships from the star system-level civilization pursuing Daozi, and Hu Yu prepared the fleet’s antimatter defenses.
• Hu Yu refused to recall the distant search fleet and ordered it to scatter as a reserve, while preparing to evacuate families, scientists, and technicians if the Deep Blue Fleet was destroyed.
• Academician Zeng refused to evacuate and asked for the fleet’s cooperation in a final experiment that could let them survive the approaching enemy.

With the Deep Blue Fleet under pursuit, Academician Zeng used gravitational waves to locate a hidden four-dimensional space bubble that could offer refuge. Hu Yu and Zeng Zhaoyuan reached the bubble and prepared to enter the fourth dimension, leaving the fleet’s next move uncertain.

• Academician Xiao agreed to join the plan, and Academician Zeng proposed using hundreds of thousands of Hunter-Killers to generate gravitational waves and detect a four-dimensional space bubble.
• The Hunter-Killers spread through space while five enemy warships hunted them, and the Deep Blue remained hidden as the fleet waited for the waves to reveal an anomaly.
• Scientists confirmed anomalous gravitational-wave data about two light-days from the science ship, and Zeng suspected Mr. Daozi had brought or created the bubble.
• Hu Yu, Zeng Zhaoyuan, and several physicists traveled to the anomalous location, where their ship received distorted gravitational-wave data and confirmed it was inside the bubble.
• Zeng explained that the bubble’s three-dimensional portion had merged with ordinary space and ordered everyone to remain still after activating the warp engine to enter the fourth dimension.

Humanity’s first entry into four-dimensional space gave Academician Zeng’s team data but left the Deep Blue Fleet needing a way to survive there safely. As the fleet hid from five alien warships and the aliens’ commanders questioned their head of state’s rule, Liu Bo proposed pulling a stable region of three-dimensional space into the bubble.

• Hu Yu and Academician Zeng’s crew entered four-dimensional space, observed its strange effects, collected data, and returned to the greater universe.
• Hu Yu ordered the Deep Blue Fleet and nearby Hunter-Killers to regroup, but Yang Fan and Chen Peng kept 300,000 Hunter-Killers scattered to conceal the Deep Blue’s location.
• Academician Zeng’s team studied how humans could live in the space bubble without being harmed by its fourth dimension.
• The five alien warship commanders discussed their search for the human civilization and rumors that their head of state had purged officials and expanded the fleet.
• Liu Bo proposed pulling a stable region of three-dimensional space from the greater universe into the bubble so the Deep Blue Fleet could live there.

Academician Liu Bo’s space-stretching experiment allowed the Deep Blue Fleet to hide safely inside a four-dimensional space bubble while its Hunter-Killers escaped their pursuers. As the fleet later headed for Alpha Centauri, two engineering ships arrived first, surveyed its planets, and began preparing the system for development.

• Academician Liu Bo and Academician Zeng successfully tested a sphere of Hunter-Killers that stretched three-dimensional space into the four-dimensional bubble without harming the spacecraft inside.
• Hu Yu moved the Deep Blue ships and their crews into the protected sphere, while Yang Fan and Chen Peng split the remaining Hunter-Killers into two groups to evade the aliens.
• The scattered Hunter-Killers eventually lost their pursuers, regrouped more than 700 light-years apart, and continued their long detour toward Alpha Centauri.
• Two engineering ships reached Alpha Centauri ahead of the fleet, confirmed that its third star had two rocky planets, and landed on the first planet.
• The engineering ships surveyed the planet’s mineral reserves and sent their findings to the Deep Blue Fleet, whose scientists used them to plan the system’s development.

The engineering ships built underground cities on Alpha Centauri’s first planet, and the Hunter-Killer Fleet and Deep Blue Fleet arrived to take shelter there. After welcoming the fleets and hearing reports from their commanders, Hu Yu convened a meeting to gather requirements for a new warship design.

• The engineering ships excavated and equipped underground spaces while the first planet’s surface grew increasingly hot.
• Chen Peng and Yang Fan’s fleet of 300,000 Hunter-Killers arrived, and its crew joined the engineering teams in expanding the underground cities.
• Hu Yu welcomed the Deep Blue Fleet and honored the engineering-ship personnel for preparing the settlements.
• Yang Fan and Chen Peng reported on their fleet’s 700-light-year detour and their discovery of one planetary-level civilization, which Hu Yu ordered them not to disturb.
• Hu Yu gathered the fleet commanders and Academician Zeng in Science City to discuss a new warship, and the commanders debated armor, size, weapons, maneuverability, and escape systems.

Academician Zeng unveiled the Stealth Killer, a faster, more durable warship designed for mass production and mostly remote operation, while the fleet planned to rebuild its industry and dismantle the Hunter-Killers. The chapter ended with Academician Xiao requesting an isolated underground city for a secret biological project and preparing to show Hu Yu its latest product.

• Wen Zhonghua gathered frontline suggestions about the Hunter-Killer, and Academician Zeng presented the Stealth Killer’s design, weapons, spatial-distortion defenses, and improved holographic technology.
• Academician Zeng explained that the Deep Blue would be upgraded and the Hunter-Killers dismantled to provide materials for the new fleet.
• Academician Zeng outlined plans to build 30 million modular Stealth Killers over several decades, with most ships unmanned and piloted remotely by operators on the Deep Blue.
• Hu Yu visited the biological ship, where Academician Xiao asked him to arrange a large, isolated underground city for the biologists.
• Academician Xiao invited Hu Yu to see the biological ship’s new product.

Hu Yu approved Academician Xiao’s plan to cultivate a biological legion while the fleet completed its Stealth Killer fleet and prepared to search for a habitable planet. A silver spacecraft that had secretly watched the fleet traveled to Tau Ceti, where its occupant summoned Ma Meng.

• Academician Xiao showed Hu Yu a first-generation interstellar biological warrior and explained its abilities, limits, and production process.
• Academician Xiao described Little Crab, a parasitic organism designed to control biological warriors and destroy them if they threatened humanity.
• Hu Yu approved cultivating an initial hundred million biological warriors and releasing strategic reserves to support production.
• The fleet completed twenty million Stealth Killers ahead of schedule, and Hu Yu hoped to find a habitable planet for the people to settle.
• A silver spacecraft that had watched the fleet leave Alpha Centauri and travel to Tau Ceti, where its occupant called for Ma Meng.

Ma Meng, leader of the Sand Python Civilization, resisted the Patrol’s order to attack humanity early and tried to turn his fleet against the Patrol. After the Patrol destroyed thousands of Sand Python warships, Ma Meng surrendered, and the Patrol explained why the Sand Pythons still had a chance against humanity.

• The Patrol confronted Ma Meng about the Sand Python Civilization’s slow development and ordered him to attack humanity before the 200-year deadline.
• Ma Meng recalled how he had seized leadership and planned to abandon the mission and escape Tau Ceti once his fleet was large enough.
• Ma Meng secretly ordered his fleet to move against the Patrol, but the Patrol’s silver ship destroyed thousands of warships before the Sand Pythons stopped resisting.
• Ma Meng begged for mercy and promised that the Sand Python fleet would attack humanity immediately.
• The Patrol warned that humanity’s fleet had reached mid star system-level strength, but argued that its small warships left the Sand Pythons a chance to win.

The Sand Python Civilization sent a fleet towing Tau Ceti toward humanity, prompting Hu Yu and Wen Zhonghua to prepare for an attack at Alpha Centauri. The Stealth Killers moved the first planet to safety and advanced to confront the approaching fleet, leaving both sides poised for battle.

• Ma Meng agreed to lead the Sand Python fleet against humanity after the Patrol promised him technology if he succeeded.
• The Sand Python fleet assembled at Tau Ceti and dragged the star toward Alpha Centauri, sending the system’s planets flying from their orbits.
• Wen Zhonghua received a report that a fleet towing a star was twenty light-years away, and Hu Yu ordered the Stealth Killers into space.
• Academician Zeng recognized similarities between the enemy ships and the old Sand Python warships, while Hu Yu concluded the star was being brought for war.
• Hu Yu ordered the Stealth Killers to move the first planet behind Alpha Centauri’s first star, then sent the fleet forward to meet the enemy.
• The Stealth Killers dropped out of warp less than a light-day from the Sand Python fleet and waited for the order to attack.

Humanity recognized Tau Ceti in the Sand Python fleet and learned that a more powerful civilization had tasked the Sand Pythons with destroying them. Hu Yu ordered a full attack and planned to destroy both Tau Ceti and Alpha Centauri's third star, while Ma Meng's fleet prepared to retaliate.

• Academician Zeng identified the star accompanying the Sand Python fleet as Tau Ceti, and Ma Meng demanded humanity surrender or face destruction.
• Hu Yu and the others suspected a small star sector civilization was backing the Sand Pythons, possibly because of conflicts involving the leader's or Minister Luo's fleet.
• Hu Yu ordered Wen Zhonghua to attack and directed the fleet to draw the battle toward Alpha Centauri's third star, intending to destroy it after the Sand Pythons blew up Tau Ceti.
• Humanity launched antimatter bombs at the Sand Python fleet, and Ma Meng ordered his ships to fight back.
• Antimatter bombs and gravity distortions crossed the light-day gap, with many bombs thrown off course and detonating amid the warped space.

Humanity’s Stealth Killers battled the Sand Python fleet with antimatter bombs, lasers, and antiphoton beams, gradually gaining the advantage as the Sand Python warships suffered heavy losses. Ma Meng ordered Tau Ceti detonated, while Old Hu prepared to answer by detonating Alpha Centauri’s third star.

• Human and Sand Python warships exchanged antimatter bombs and laser fire, destroying ships on both sides.
• Ma Meng ordered the Sand Python fleet to release its remaining antimatter bombs, forcing the Stealth Killers to evade while they attacked.
• Wen Zhonghua ordered the Stealth Killers to use antiphoton weapons against the tracking bombs, destroying many of them at the cost of numerous Stealth Killers.
• The Stealth Killers targeted weak points on Sand Python warships, and the battle turned against the Sand Python fleet as its losses mounted.
• Old Hu said humanity would detonate Alpha Centauri’s third star if the Sand Python fleet detonated Tau Ceti or the battle moved closer to it.
• Ma Meng, enraged by the loss of half his warships, ordered Tau Ceti detonated.

After detonating Tau Ceti, the Sand Python fleet was destroyed by humanity’s explosion of Alpha Centauri’s third star, while the human fleet also suffered heavy losses. The Patrol then exterminated the Sand Python civilians, and Hu Yu ordered the surviving human ships to leave the region and seek a new home.

• Ma Meng ordered a hidden Sand Python warship to detonate Tau Ceti, devastating both fleets and destroying much of the human Stealth Killer fleet.
• Humanity detonated Alpha Centauri’s third star, and its energy tide wiped out the remaining Sand Python warships.
• Hu Yu mourned Tau Ceti and sent surviving Stealth Killers to search the region for Sand Python remnants.
• The Patrol found the Sand Python civilian ships and destroyed them, ending the Sand Python Civilization.
• After searches found no surviving Sand Python forces, Hu Yu ordered the human fleet to return and prepare to leave the region.