Chapter Summaries

The insect king used low-tier insects to carry dimensional strikes into the fleets, devastating the Hydra Civilization and forcing the other fleets to spread out. With the advance of the insect mass halted by the 120 billion warships, the insect king ordered the swarm to contract into a dense formation protected by high-tier insects.

• The insect king pierced and destroyed Reapers and Fish Horse Star Civilization warships before returning to the insect mass through the fourth dimension with low-tier insects.
• The insect king sent the low-tier insects into the Hydra Civilization fleet, destroying more than five billion warships with a dimensional strike.
• Hu Yu gave the dimensional-strike research to Academician Zhou Xiaohua, who agreed to pause his work on four-dimensional positioning.
• The insect king launched another dimensional strike at a region of concentrated fleets, destroying fewer than a hundred million warships after the fleets had scattered.
• The insect king realized its advance had been stopped and ordered the insect mass to contract, placing high-tier insects on the outside and low-tier insects within.

Hu Yu and the civilization fleets struggled to slow the bug swarm, whose high-tier bugs formed a fast-moving shielded ball that resisted their attacks. As the swarm continued toward the defensive line, the Far Watcher Civilization arrived with a massive fleet and joined the fight.

• The high-tier bugs formed a dense ball and carried the swarm forward at high warp speed, reducing the effectiveness of the Consciousness Field shock weapons.
• Hu Yu sent the Reapers to attack, but after days of fighting they killed only a few bugs and spent a vast amount of energy, so he ordered them to stop.
• The civilization leaders admitted they had no solution as the swarm advanced toward the defensive line, leaving them reluctant to risk close-range attacks.
• The Far Watcher Civilization arrived with 500 billion warships and 2,000 planetary space cannons and immediately attacked the swarm.
• Hu Yu recognized the Far Watcher fleet he had attacked years earlier and noted its warships' independent consciousness and superior combat coordination.

The Far Watcher Civilization and the allied fleets fought to halt the bug ball, while the Far Watcher’s upgraded planetary space cannons carved deep holes into it. The bug king’s dimensional strikes continued to devastate the allied forces, but the civilizations kept attacking.

• The Far Watcher Civilization urged the allied fleets to hold the line, and the Reapers, the Fish Horse Star Civilization, and the other civilizations joined the battle.
• The bug king launched a dimensional reduction strike that destroyed more than ten billion Hydra Civilization warships, forcing the fleets to reconsider their formations.
• The Far Watcher Civilization asked the leaders to cover its space cannons, and the fleets resumed their full-strength attacks despite further losses to the Reapers.
• The Far Watcher Civilization deployed upgraded, maneuverable planetary space cannons that fired rotating Space Shockwaves into the bug ball, killing bugs and blasting deep holes in its surface.
• The bug king’s dimensional strikes repeatedly missed the Far Watcher Civilization’s forces but hit the allied fleets, and even the Hydra Civilization joined the all-out attack.

The Far Watcher Civilization linked 500 planets into super space cannons that pierced the insect ball, badly wounded the insect king, and scattered the swarm. The civilizations hunted down the remaining insects, ending the galaxy’s largest swarm ten years later, though their fleets suffered heavy losses.

• The Far Watcher Civilization fired four super planetary space cannons, punching deep holes through the insect ball and killing or crippling many high-tier insects.
• The injured insect king fled into the fourth dimension, and successive spatial attacks broke the swarm apart.
• The Far Watcher Civilization told the other civilizations to finish off the insects, then withdrew with its fleet and planets after warning humanity that it would later demand justice.
• Hu Yu and the other civilizations’ fleets surrounded the scattered insects, while the Reaper and Fish Horse Star Civilization contained them with Consciousness Field impact weapons.
• Ten years later, a Fish Horse Star Civilization warship killed the last insect, ending the swarm after the civilizations had lost billions of ships.

After the insect swarms were defeated, Hu Yu’s Reapers salvaged insect corpses and watched the elusive Fish Horse Star Civilization, which avoided revealing its base. As the Reapers headed home, they searched for the vanished Mechanical Civilization but found no trace of it.

• The civilizations collected insect corpses across the battlefield, and Hu Yu sent the Reapers to salvage giant insects for Academician Xiao’s biological soldiers.
• The Fish Horse Star Civilization collected corpses near the Reapers without provoking them, then departed; Hu Yu ordered miniature Wrigglers to track its fleet.
• The Wrigglers reported that the Fish Horse Star fleet was heading for the defense line rather than returning to its hidden base, frustrating Hu Yu’s hopes of discovering its location.
• Hu Yu led the Reapers home while they destroyed small swarms and searched for the Mechanical Civilization, scanning stars, planets, insects, and meteorites without finding evidence of it.

Hu Yu’s fleet found and contained a malfunctioning Mechanical Civilization body while helping the civilizations reclaim space from the insect swarms. The swarms were defeated, but the Mechanical Civilization’s lord remained undiscovered as Academician Zeng and Academician Xiao tried to restore the machine’s consciousness.

• After more than a century of searching, Hu Yu detected an artificial radiation pattern inside a star and found a small Mechanical Civilization body that had run out of energy.
• Academician Zeng confirmed the body had no consciousness, and the fleet sealed it in a Fourth Reversed State box before sending it back with two billion warships.
• Reaper and allied fleets continued exterminating the insect swarms, and three hundred years after the invasion they reclaimed the space they had originally held.
• A tally showed that sixty billion insects had descended and that the civilizations had suffered enormous losses, though the Mechanical Civilization’s lord had still not been found.
• Academician Zeng repaired the body and, with Academician Xiao, prepared to supply it with energy after removing components that might let it move, self-destruct, or contact its lord.

Academician Zeng and Academician Xiao revived a mechanical body and interrogated it about the lord and its origins in the Alpha Universe. After a week of questioning, Academician Xiao began trying to tame or copy it, while Hu Yu and Wen Zhonghua inspected an Aquila Civilization industrial planet with a group of scientists.

• Academician Xiao detected fluctuations in the mechanical body's Consciousness Field, and the body finally spoke after he threatened to implant painful memories.
• The mechanical body told Academician Zeng that it came from the Alpha Universe, where the lord had ruled, and described the fleet's arrival and its later orders to lure in the swarm and self-destruct.
• The mechanical body said it could not contact the lord because humanity had blocked communications and distorted space, and Academician Zeng decided to keep it for research rather than hand it to the Great Star Region Civilization.
• Academicians Zeng and Xiao questioned the mechanical body for a week, learning about the Alpha Universe, mechanical bodies, and the lord's fleet.
• Academician Xiao fed the mechanical body a billion years of happy memories and removed its voice system as he began trying to tame or copy it.
• Hu Yu and Wen Zhonghua led scientists on an inspection of an Aquila Civilization industrial planet while the seven little devils neglected their duties.

Hu Yu and Wen Zhonghua inspected the Aquila Civilization’s slow industrial conversion before Yun San informed Hu Yu that humanity could enter Alliance Space, though Hu Yu declined for now. The Star Ring Alliance was assigned over a hundred thousand lower-level civilizations to protect, while the Mechanical Civilization remained a serious threat.

• Hu Yu and Wen Zhonghua scolded Number One and the other Aquila leaders for delaying their industrial upgrades, and Hu Yu warned them to prepare for the Mechanical Civilization as well as the Insect Race.
• Yun San contacted Hu Yu to offer humanity entry into Alliance Space, but Hu Yu said the Star Ring Alliance still needed them.
• Yun San explained that the recent fighting had greatly weakened the swarms, but the Mechanical Civilization could hide by cutting off space and drawing energy from the fourth dimension.
• Yun San asked the Star Ring Alliance to protect and develop the more than one hundred thousand lower-level civilizations in its territory, and Hu Yu agreed to arrange their transportation.
• After returning to Earth Four, Hu Yu ordered the fleet to gather insect corpses from within a thousand light-years and move them to a remote region containing mountains of corpses, more than 200 planets, and five billion Reapers.

More than two thousand years after the insect disaster, the Star Ring Alliance rebuilt its fleets and settled into peace while Academician Xiao and Academician Zeng developed a way to give mechanical entities loyal biological consciousness. The new intelligent machines could independently handle complex production, but they could not replicate themselves and each required a little crab’s consciousness.

• Academician Xiao moved his biological planets and insect specimens into the star region, where Hu Yu sent five billion Reapers to protect them.
• The Star Ring Alliance restored its civilizations and fleets, and Hu Yu had the Sand Star Civilization and South Star Civilization begin building warships.
• The Crystal Civilization and Gemini Civilization settled near the alliance, while the Aquila Civilization eventually left.
• By 48000 AD, the Reaper and Stinger fleets had grown to eighty billion and one hundred billion ships, respectively.
• Academician Xiao and Academician Zeng created mechanical entities whose original consciousness was replaced by that of little crabs, making them absolutely loyal to humanity.
• The new machines could independently complete complex manufacturing tasks, but Xiao and Zeng removed their ability to replicate themselves.

Hu Yu received a coded signal from Academician Liu in the Matter River and learned that a rescue would require forcing a path into the insect zone. He accelerated fleet and weapon production to prepare for the rescue, while Academician Liu and Chen Peng waited in the Matter River.

• Hu Yu expanded warship production and kept the Superintelligent Robots’ existence secret as the fleet’s population and Reaper numbers grew.
• In 53010, Hu Yu received the signal “文刀” from the Matter River and recognized it as a message from Academician Liu.
• Hu Yu consulted Academician Zeng, who said they would force their way in once Academician Zhou’s dimensional weapon was ready, under the pretext of attacking Li Shun.
• Academician Liu reassured Chen Peng that Hu Yu was likely planning a rescue, and the two joked about their quiet life and Chen Peng’s cooking.
• Hu Yu abandoned his plan to fight at the defensive line and redirected production toward the warships and weapons needed to enter the insect zone and rescue Academician Liu.

In 54000 CE, Zhou Xiaohua completed a dimensional bomb that could bring a fourth-dimensional hypersphere into three-dimensional space, giving humanity a new weapon for its planned campaign against Li Shun. By 54180 CE, the Reapers were equipped for the operation, but Hu Yu and an unnamed companion argued over who should lead it.

• Zhou Xiaohua told Hu Yu he had developed a way to create dimensional bombs, and Hu Yu ordered them installed on the ships.
• Zhou Xiaohua used the Reapers’ curvature engines and space cannons to send hyperspheres away before they collapsed, though the resulting strike remained limited to a small area.
• Hu Yu arranged for industrial planets to produce the equipment while refusing other civilizations’ offers to join the campaign against Li Shun.
• By 54180 CE, every Reaper carried hypersphere dimensional weapons and upgraded Consciousness Field impact weapons, while academicians pursued new ways to obtain shipbuilding materials.
• An unnamed companion told Hu Yu to stay behind and offered to lead the operation, but Hu Yu insisted on going himself.

Wen Zhonghua led a massive Reaper fleet into the insect zone to eliminate Li Shun and retrieve Academician Liu, Chen Peng, and the others. Along the way, the fleet destroyed a huge insect swarm threatening the defensive line, and the Heavenly Peak Civilization reported humanity’s growing power to its leader.

• Wen Zhonghua led Gao Jianchuan, Li Zhixiong, and the Reaper fleet through the Heavenly Peak Civilization’s defensive passage into the insect zone.
• The fleet encountered a joint force of civilizations fighting a vast insect swarm less than two hundred light-years beyond the defensive line.
• Wen Zhonghua sent the Reapers ahead and used dimensional bombs to devastate the swarm, killing many insects and sending the survivors fleeing.
• The joint fleet abandoned the fight, impressed by the Reapers’ strength, while Heavenly Peak Civilization warships sent footage of the battle to their base.
• The Heavenly Peak Civilization’s leader praised humanity’s rapid rise and wondered how the other Alliance leaders, especially the Demon Scorpion Civilization’s leader, would react.

Wen Zhonghua’s fleet entered insect territory to find Li Shun, but a huge swarm blocked its path and revealed that Li Shun was on his way. Gao Jianchuan prepared the Reapers to trap Li Shun’s fleet, and the two sides met face to face.

• Wen Zhonghua led the fleet deeper into insect territory while broadcasting that Li Shun, not the insects, was their target.
• A swarm blocked the fleet, and the Insect King said Li Shun was the one stopping them.
• Gao Jianchuan planned to increase the area’s energy density to hinder Li Shun’s and the insects’ movement.
• Li Shun arrived with his disc-shaped fleet, and Gao Jianchuan demanded that he surrender.
• Li Shun demanded the Reapers’ armor and weapons technology in exchange for letting them leave.

Wen Zhonghua's fleet attacked Li Shun's fleet but found it immune to dimensional bombs, while Li Shun retaliated with a dimensionality reduction strike. As the Reapers were surrounded by the swarm, Gao Jianchuan suspected Li Shun's ships used quantum entanglement, but he had no clear way to defeat them.

• Wen Zhonghua ordered an attack on Li Shun, but the first dimensional-bomb barrage left Li Shun's fleet unharmed.
• Wen Zhonghua ordered a second barrage, which also failed, and Li Shun mocked the humans before launching a saucer-shaped warship into the Reaper fleet.
• Li Shun's warship unleashed a dimensionality reduction strike that destroyed thousands of Reapers, prompting Wen Zhonghua to order a retreat and dispersal.
• The swarm closed in and surrounded the Reaper fleet while Gao Jianchuan examined the data.
• Gao Jianchuan observed an energy sphere tear a hole in one of Li Shun's ships, which repaired itself within seconds, and proposed that Li Shun's fleet relied on quantum entanglement.
• Li Zhixiong questioned Gao Jianchuan's theory, and Wen Zhonghua asked whether he knew how to destroy the fleet.

Wen Zhonghua’s Reaper fleet fought to keep the bug swarm at bay while Li Shun’s quantumized warships pressed toward its formation under layers of bugs. The Reapers held the attackers at the edge of their Dimensional Bomb range, but the unseen bug king and the encircled fleet left their next move uncertain.

• Wen Zhonghua’s officers suspected Li Shun would exploit the encroaching swarm to close the distance and launch a dimensional strike, so the Reapers concentrated fire on the bugs and Li Shun’s ships.
• The Reaper fleet split its fire into rotating groups to hold back the swarm as Li Shun’s warships repeatedly approached, were destroyed by Dimensional Bombs, and returned to their original state.
• Li Shun’s fleet withdrew into the swarm, where bugs enveloped its warships in enormous balls and shielded them as they advanced toward the Reapers.
• Wen Zhonghua assigned ships to concentrate fire on Li Shun while the Reapers fought to keep the bug balls outside their formation; the bug king remained hidden in the rear, observing the battle.
• The Reapers stopped Li Shun’s nearest ships just over 300,000 kilometers away, but Gao Jianchuan warned Wen Zhonghua not to relax because the bug king had not appeared and breaking out of the swarm would be difficult.

The Insect King attacked the Reaper fleet from within its formation while Li Shun’s four-dimensional warships destroyed nearly a million Reapers with dimensional reduction strikes. Wen Zhonghua ordered the fleet to increase the density of space and considered drawing Li Shun’s fleet inside to contain it.

• The Insect King leaped into the Reaper fleet and carried warships into the fourth dimension, where insects destroyed them.
• Li Shun’s warships exploited gaps in the Reapers’ fire and repeatedly used dimensional collapse to destroy nearly a million ships.
• Gao Jianchuan recognized that Li Shun’s warships had four-dimensional structures and advised Wen Zhonghua to increase the density of space.
• Wen Zhonghua ordered the Reapers to extract energy from the fourth dimension at full power.
• A commander advised Wen Zhonghua to open a gap and let Li Shun’s fleet enter so the Reapers could surround and constrain it.

The Reapers trapped Li Shun’s fleet in a shrinking battle zone and began destroying its warships in groups, but the bug king turned Li Shun’s ships into devastating dimensionality-reduction weapons. Wen Zhonghua’s side faced imminent annihilation and sought a way to kill the bug king.

• Wen Zhonghua’s officers discussed luring Li Shun’s warships into a dense Reaper formation and concentrating their attacks on them.
• The Reapers exposed a gap, and Li Shun’s fleet charged into their formation as the Reapers closed around it.
• Li Shun’s warships became trapped in the shrinking battle zone, where the Reapers destroyed them in groups and one ship failed to reappear after more than a thousand hits.
• The bug king sent Li Shun’s warships into the fourth dimension and placed them amid the Reapers, destroying more than a hundred million Reapers in a series of explosions.
• Wen Zhonghua told Zhuge Xiong to find a way to kill the bug king, and Zhuge Xiong warned that doing so might attract more high-level bugs.

The Reapers sacrificed two billion warships to create a third reversed state that trapped Li Shun’s fleet and the Worm King. Reapers killed the Worm King, then repeatedly restored the reversed state after Li Shun’s dimensional reduction attack shattered it, leaving his fleet trapped and vulnerable.

• Wen Zhonghua ordered two billion Reapers to detonate hyperspheres at close range and create the third reversed state.
• The Reapers trapped most of Li Shun’s fleet and bound the Worm King inside the reversed state.
• Reapers fired virtual matter arrows and decapitated the Worm King, killing it.
• Li Shun launched a dimensional reduction attack that shattered the reversed state, but nearby Reapers converted the energy and formed it again.
• Reapers attacked Li Shun’s trapped warships with energy spheres while the fleet continued assaulting the surrounding swarm.

Li Shun withdrew his fleet after losing the four-dimensional warships, while a meteorite secretly attached itself to one of his ships. At the same time, three giant insects attacked Wen Zhonghua’s fleet with a powerful Consciousness Field, leaving the command crew struggling to stay conscious.

• Li Shun abandoned his dimensional reduction attacks after the Reapers repeatedly reversed the battlefield and destroyed his warships.
• Wei Kaiyuan advised Li Shun to retreat, and Li Shun ordered the remaining ships to withdraw rather than summon more insect kings.
• A small meteorite secretly attached itself to one of Li Shun’s saucer-shaped warships as the fleet passed near the Matter River.
• Three giant insects arrived to compete for the dead insect king’s territory, then charged into the Reaper fleet after noticing its attacks.
• The insects’ Consciousness Field attack caused widespread pain and unconsciousness aboard Wen Zhonghua’s command ships.
• Wen Zhonghua, Li Zhixiong, and Gao Jianchuan forced themselves to keep working, and Gao Jianchuan stabbed his thigh with a pen to endure the pain.

Gao Jianchuan, Li Zhixiong, and Wen Zhonghua fought through the pain of a powerful bug’s Consciousness Field shock to restore coordination in the Reaper fleet. As the swarm poured through the breached defenses, they began a dimensional-strike plan against the bug targeting the command ships, leaving thousands of Reapers entering warped space.

• Gao Jianchuan stabbed his leg with a pen to counter the pain, and Li Zhixiong followed his example before both men resumed directing the fleet with Wen Zhonghua.
• The three commanders identified three giant bugs wreaking havoc among the Reapers and spotted one heading toward the ten command ships with the strongest Consciousness Field shock.
• Wen Zhonghua proposed using Li Shun’s four-dimensional warships to strike the threatening bug, and Gao Jianchuan explained how the fleet could warp space to send ships into the fourth dimension.
• A thousand Reapers linked into a steel dragon while other ships formed two circles and warped space around it.
• The steel dragons began disappearing into warped space as bugs continued flooding the fleet and surrounding trapped Reapers.