Chapter Summaries

Hu Yu arranged for Academician Xiao to produce biowarriors and considered how to defeat the high-rank bug swarm threatening the galaxy. Academician Zeng proposed that severing a neutron star’s connection to the central black hole might let its inertia carry it off its orbit.

• Academician Xiao warned Hu Yu that high-rank bugs would be difficult to control and agreed to produce ten trillion biowarriors, with Superintelligent Robots helping his team.
• Hu Yu and Wen Zhonghua went to the command room, where Bi Cha reported that other Small Star Sector Civilizations could spare few fleets.
• Hu Yu considered using neutron stars against the high-rank bug swarm but knew humanity could not move them with its current technology.
• After delivering the biowarriors near the Neutron Star Defense Line, Hu Yu asked the Academy of Sciences how to move a neutron star.
• Academician Zeng suggested briefly severing a neutron star’s connection to the central black hole so its inertia would carry it off its orbit.

Hu Yu sent a billion Conquerors into the swarm to release biological warriors, but they encountered a powerful flat-bodied bug that could control four-dimensional space. The Conquerors began breaking apart when the bugs reduced the dimensions of the space around them, leaving Hu Yu and Wen Zhonghua to face the swarm’s king.

• Hu Yu ordered the Conquerors to break through the swarm and release biological warriors so they could disrupt the bugs.
• The Conquerors charged through the bugs, dropped two-dimensional bombs, and released the biological warriors as the swarm closed around them.
• The bugs caught and smashed Conquerors together, destroying their internal instruments without harming their Fifth Reversed State hulls.
• A giant flat-bodied bug appeared and deflected the Conquerors’ attacks by manipulating space and turning a region of three-dimensional space into four-dimensional space.
• Hu Yu realized that the bugs were reducing the dimensions of space around the Conquerors, causing their four-dimensional structures to break down.

The Conquerors’ attack on the flat insect ended in disaster, prompting Hu Yu and Bi Cha to mobilize another force. Meanwhile, Li Shun’s insect citizens prepared to leave the galaxy as he rushed to turn insect abilities into technology.

• The flat insect used a dimensional-reduction explosion to destroy the billion Conquerors, and Feng Ye told Hu Yu and Bi Cha that they could slow the insect but not fully immobilize it.
• Bi Cha mobilized the Endeavors, and he and Hu Yu set off with their warships into the Insect Zone to confront the flat insect again.
• Biological warriors embedded in the insect swarm completed the first phase of their mission after losing more than half their number, while Hu Yu could only leave them fixed orders.
• More than 200 trillion insect citizens, created by implanting Li Shun’s people with insect brains, gathered at the galaxy’s edge to prepare to leave.
• Li Shun continued researching ways to turn insect instincts and four-dimensional abilities into usable technology, having traded hundreds of quadrillions of people to the Insect King for high-tier insects.

Li Shun prepared biomechanical insect fleets and secretly expanded production of enslaved mechanical bodies while planning to kill the galaxy’s Insect King. Meanwhile, the civilization alliance’s defensive line kept advancing despite heavy losses, and Hu Yu’s fleet waited for the flat Insect King to appear.

• Li Shun used the insects’ compatibility with human brains to prepare two hundred trillion biomechanical ships for the coming attack by the civilization fleets.
• Li Shun’s scientists replicated mechanical bodies at the second base and controlled them with logic bombs while trillions of bodies labored to build his empire.
• Li Shun sent most of his insect subjects toward the second base and left a few million as spies to watch for a chance to kill the galaxy’s Insect King.
• Li Zhixiong reported that 112 civilizations had withdrawn from the defensive line, while Hu Yu ordered the fleets to advance cautiously as the swarm was gradually eliminated.
• Hu Yu and Bi Cha sent one billion Conquerors and one billion Endeavors toward the insect clusters to draw out the flat Insect King, and Hu Yu counted three trillion hidden biological warriors among the swarm.
• The insects stopped before the fleet and provoked it, while Hu Yu waited for the flat Insect King to show itself.

Hu Yu and Bi Cha’s fleets gravely wounded the Insect King but lost their Conquerors and Endeavors to the swarm. As the high-level insect cluster advanced toward the defensive line, Erguan arrived and revealed that the Heavenly Peak Civilization had already lost more than half its fleet.

• Hu Yu and Bi Cha attacked the flatworm with Conquerors and Endeavors, but their first assault failed to penetrate its flowing space.
• Hu Yu spotted breaks in the flatworm’s defenses, and an antimatter-laden Conqueror and two-dimensionalization bombs tore large wounds in the Insect King.
• The swarm overwhelmed the surviving ships and destroyed the last Conqueror after the fleets killed more than ten billion insects.
• Hu Yu told Bi Cha that they had come close to success, while Bi Cha said the battle showed the Insect King could be killed.
• Erguan visited Hu Yu on Earth Four and asked whether he had found a way to stop the high-level insect cluster.
• Erguan said the Heavenly Peak Civilization had lost more than half its fleet, then began to explain its remaining situation.

Li Shun ordered his fleet to abduct billions of civilians so he could bargain with the wounded Insect King and take control of it. The fleet reached the high-tier insect corps, where the injured Insect King was recovering.

• Hu Yu learned that killing the Insect King was essential to defeating the high-tier insect corps and agreed to find a way to do it.
• After learning that the Insect King was gravely wounded, Li Shun ordered Wei Kaiyuan to take the fleet into the Insect Zone and seize civilians to trade for one of the King’s followers.
• Guan Sengping watched as mechanical units abducted more than thirteen billion people from a planet in Second Base.
• Guan Sengping activated the planet’s self-destruct system and led the fleet through the fourth dimension, evading the Great Star Region Civilization with help from insect civilians.
• The insects let Li Shun’s fleet enter the high-tier insect corps, where the wounded Insect King was recuperating under the protection of small flatworms.

Guan Sengping and Li Shun’s fleet fed the wounded Insect King billions of people while secretly planting human-shaped machines inside its body. After Guan Sengping began a plan to reach and control its brain, the Insect King discovered some machines and destroyed them by having a guard insect pierce its body.

• Guan Sengping used Li Shun’s fleet to feed the weakened Insect King people, keeping it distracted as the warships surrounded its wounds.
• The fleet left 500 human-shaped machines inside the Insect King’s wound, where they avoided its digestive organs.
• Guan Sengping obtained a small flatworm and replaced its brain with a human brain, then ordered scientists to map safe routes toward the Insect King’s brain.
• After two hours, the scientists mapped five routes, and Guan Sengping issued the command before escaping into the fourth dimension.
• The Insect King detected machines along two routes but lacked the energy to stop them, so it summoned a guard insect that pierced its body and destroyed the machines.

Li Shun’s machines replaced the Insect King’s consciousness with a human brain, giving him control of the insect swarm. He and Wei Kaiyuan planned to attack civilizations under the Far Watcher Civilization while Li Shun waited for the Insect King to recover and the enemy fleets to weaken.

• The guard insect destroyed three groups of machines, while the insect swarm consumed Li Shun’s warships and the ten billion people aboard them.
• A machine group reached the Insect King’s brain, overcame its resistance, and successfully replaced its consciousness with a human brain.
• The insects mistook the Insect King’s silence for recovery, while Li Shun celebrated his new control and Wei Kaiyuan advised him to keep transplanting brains into insects.
• Li Shun waited for the Insect King to recover and the five advanced Great Star Region Civilizations to weaken their fleets, while Hu Yu remained unaware of what had happened.
• Li Shun and Wei Kaiyuan chose to target 400,000 Small Star Sector Advanced Civilizations under the Far Watcher Civilization, whose fleets had been sent to the Neutron Star Defense Line.
• Li Shun held back from revealing his insect citizens and no longer considered his 600 billion warships, including 50,000 four-dimensional warships, useful.

Li Shun attacked the civilizations under the Far Watcher Civilization’s protection while their forces were focused on the insect swarm. Hu Yu sent two hundred billion Conquerors to stop him, and their surprise assault devastated Li Shun’s fleet.

• Li Shun sent six hundred billion saucer-shaped warships into the fourth dimension and began destroying civilizations in Far Watcher Civilization territory.
• The Far Watcher Civilization reported Li Shun’s attack, and Gao Jianchuan arranged for two hundred billion Conquerors to hunt him down.
• Hu Yu revealed the Conquerors near Earth to reassure the alliance before sending them toward the Far Watcher Civilization’s territory.
• Li Shun’s fleet overwhelmed scattered local forces, while the other Small Star Sector Civilizations asked humanity for help.
• The Conquerors ambushed Li Shun’s fleet, destroyed his fifty thousand four-dimensional warships, and wiped out more than half of his forces.

The Conquerors destroyed Li Shun’s fleet without losses, and Hu Yu ordered stable spatial passages built to protect the Small Star Sector Civilizations. As Gao Jianchuan searched for Li Shun’s hidden base and scientists struggled to move the neutron-star defense line, the insect clusters resumed their advance toward it.

• The Conquerors annihilated Li Shun’s fleet in less than 24 hours, while the Far Watcher Civilization vowed not to provoke humanity again.
• Hu Yu sent fleets to establish spatial passages linking the Small Star Sector Civilizations’ bases to the Star Ring Alliance.
• A hidden enemy leadership discussed mechanizing its people, attacking Hu Yu and other civilizations, and allowing the Insect King to recover without attracting the Insect Emperor’s attention.
• Gao Jianchuan searched coordinate base-station signals for minute changes that might reveal Li Shun’s fleet’s passage through the fourth dimension.
• Academician Zeng rejected proposals for moving neutron stars through spatial passages or using them to strike the insect swarm.
• The insect clusters began advancing again, and a general was warned they would reach the defense line within four or five years.

Hu Yu prepared the defense against the advancing high-level insect swarm by conserving fleets and creating neutron-star minefields, while refusing to expose the base to attack. As the swarm closed in, Yuan of the Great Cang Civilization arrived with a proposed way to make neutron stars enter warp travel.

• Hu Yu ordered defense-line fleets to stop advancing and conserve their strength, while rear civilizations increased warship production and held new fleets in reserve.
• The Yun San Civilization warned Hu Yu that killing the Insect King would accelerate the swarm’s advance, and revealed that billions of the Insect Emperor’s guard insects had joined the battle.
• Hu Yu’s fleet weakened nearby stars with spatial attacks until they collapsed into neutron stars, which he scattered behind the defense line as mines.
• Hu Yu decided not to deploy the two-dimensional Conquerors because battlefield conditions could expose them and the base remained vulnerable to attack.
• As the Insect King recovered and the swarm approached, Hu Yu gathered the Small Star Sector Civilizations’ fleets at the Neutron Star Defense Line.
• Yuan and Yang of the Great Cang Civilization met Hu Yu, and Yuan said he knew how to make neutron stars enter warp travel.

Yuan revealed that the Great Cang Civilization had found a way to send neutron stars into warp flight, giving the Star Ring Alliance a devastating weapon against enemy bases. In return, Hu Yu arranged for Academician Xiao to visit and study the civilization’s genes, a benefit Yuan and Yang welcomed.

• Yuan told Hu Yu that the Great Cang Civilization had solved the problem of sending a neutron star into warp flight, so Hu Yu summoned Academician Zeng.
• Yuan and Academician Zeng explained that two neutron stars of different masses, separated by a Reversed State pillar, could propel themselves through warp flight and eventually explode as a powerful attack.
• Hu Yu recognized the weapon’s potential against other civilizations’ bases and told Academician Zeng to make arrangements.
• Hu Yu offered to send human scientists to help the Great Cang Civilization advance, but Yuan declined and admitted that they had made no progress with spatial attacks.
• Hu Yu arranged for Academician Xiao to analyze the Great Cang Civilization’s genetic structure, while Yuan and Yang welcomed the prospect of intelligence-related genetic optimization.
• Hu Yu ordered Li Zhixiong to signal the biological warriors to flee behind the swarm when they detected an attack.

Hu Yu’s civilizations launched more than 200 million Neutron Star Cannons against the approaching insect mass, while Li Shun remained unaware of the attack. The first cannons struck the swarm and began destroying vast numbers of insects, leaving the battle underway amid catastrophic damage to the galaxy.

• Academician Zeng calculated how to use reversed state pillars to accelerate pairs of neutron stars, and Hu Yu ordered the base to manufacture the giant pillars.
• The civilizations assembled and launched two waves of Neutron Star Cannons toward the high-tier insect mass and the swarm nearing the defensive line.
• Li Shun ordered the Führer to send the Insect King into battle, unaware that Hu Yu’s neutron star attack was already underway.
• Five months later, the first pair of neutron stars collided inside the insect mass, exploded, and killed hundreds of millions of high-tier insects.
• The neutron star explosions spread through the swarm, while some collisions formed black holes that dragged nearby insects into their gravity.

Hu Yu’s neutron star attack devastated the insect swarm, allowing the civilizations’ fleets to resume their advance. As Li Shun feared Hu Yu would find his hidden base before his forces were ready, the Yun San Civilization authorized a further advance.

• Li Shun ordered the surviving insects to protect the Insect King as Hu Yu’s neutron stars destroyed much of the swarm and forced the fleets to retreat from the resulting energy.
• The Insect King escaped after millions of guards died, and the surviving insects fled as the explosions killed most of the high-level swarm and much of the defensive-line swarm.
• Fifteen years later, Hu Yu ordered the fleets to hunt the scattered insects and advance the defensive line, while Li Shun feared that the civilizations would turn against him once the swarm was defeated.
• Li Shun kept moving his distant base after Gao Jianchuan had once deduced its approximate direction, leaving Hu Yu unable to locate it.
• The Yun San Civilization told Hu Yu that he could advance the defensive line 5,000 light-years beyond the original plan.

Li Shun’s special envoy visited the Linglong leader and offered the civilization advanced technology in exchange for staying neutral in a future conflict with Hu Yu. The Linglong leader accepted, while the insect war continued toward its limited objective near the Matter River.

• Lord Yun San warned that the fleet must stop within 25,000 light-years of the Matter River and said eliminating the evolving Insect Emperor was the key goal.
• Ten thousand small spacecraft spread through the fourth dimension toward cultivated civilizations.
• Li Shun’s special envoy appeared in the Linglong leader’s residence and warned him not to summon his guards.
• The envoy argued that the Linglong Civilization would remain dependent on Hu Yu and other advanced civilizations unless it gained more territory and technology.
• The envoy offered the complete technology tree of a Small Star Sector Civilization and some Great Star Region technology, asking only that the Linglong Civilization not help Hu Yu fight Li Shun.
• The Linglong leader accepted the offer.

Li Shun’s envoys distributed advanced technology trees to civilizations across the galaxy while Hu Yu considered the future of the crowded galaxy and rebuilt the defense line at the Matter River. The insect swarm and fleets settled into a standoff, while disputes over territory began among the civilizations.

• Li Shun’s special envoys gave most civilization leaders the technology tree of a Small Star Sector Advanced Civilization, and they secretly began spreading it beyond Hu Yu’s territory.
• Hu Yu considered expanding the galaxy and establishing an alliance and police fleet, but left the plan to the Great Star Region Advanced Civilizations.
• At the Matter River, the regrouped insect swarm faced the fleets across a wide buffer zone, and the Insect Emperor destroyed ten billion warships that advanced too far.
• Hu Yu ordered stars turned into neutron stars to rebuild the defense line, while keeping fleets deployed along the front.
• More than a dozen true Small Star Sector Civilizations asked Hu Yu to remove the newcomers from their territories, as cultivated civilizations began claiming newly conquered space.

Hu Yu visited the Galactic Alliance’s hidden base and met the leaders of its five Great Star Region Advanced Civilizations. They invited Human Civilization into the Alliance’s core, and Hu Yu accepted while asking whether the swarm could be completely destroyed.

• Erguan brought Hu Yu to Alliance Space, a remnant of a black hole about a million light-years from the Milky Way.
• Hu Yu met the leaders of the five Great Star Region Advanced Civilizations and correctly identified the leaders of the Demon Scorpion, Yun San, Dark Moon, and Rock Star Civilizations.
• The Yun San leader told Hu Yu that Human Civilization had earned a place in the Galactic Alliance’s core and a role in important decisions.
• Hu Yu agreed that humans would take on their responsibilities, then asked whether the swarm could be wiped out completely.

Hu Yu learned why the Insect Emperor could not be permanently destroyed and that the civilizations knew little about the Abyss. He also discovered that the five great star region civilizations were preparing the galaxy for a future war with Andromeda, whose past invasion had left humanity facing a threat potentially worse than the insect swarms.

• The leader of the Yun San Civilization explained that the Insect Emperor could rebuild its body because its source lay beyond dimensions the civilizations could reach.
• Hu Yu asked about the Abyss, recalled the vast image Academician Xiao had found in an Insect King's brain, and thought Mr. Daozi might know more about it.
• The leader of the Yun San Civilization said the galaxy's civilizations were being strengthened in preparation for the Milky Way's unavoidable collision with Andromeda billions of years later.
• The leaders revealed that two billion years earlier, a joint fleet from Andromeda had swept through the Milky Way and destroyed every advanced civilization except the five great star region civilizations.
• Hu Yu realized that another Andromeda sweep could pose a greater crisis than the insect swarms.

Hu Yu met with Leader Yun San and the other leaders to discuss the fate of civilizations, the threat from Andromeda, and the missing Mechanical Civilization and Li Shun. He then toured Alliance Space, where he saw its artificial planets, vast fleets, and busy shipyards.

• Leader Yun San explained that the alliance had abandoned its plan to use Andromeda against the Insect Emperor and outlined where cultivated and independently developed civilizations would settle.
• Hu Yu declined to move into Alliance Space, saying he needed to manage the Star Ring Alliance with the Xuan Star Civilization.
• Tian Feng told Hu Yu that the alliance had destroyed several small Mechanical Civilization fleets but had found no trace of the Lord.
• Hu Yu asked the leaders to report any trace of Li Shun, and they agreed to keep watch for him.
• Erguan showed Hu Yu around Alliance Space, where Hu Yu saw nearly a million artificial planets, densely parked fleets, and busy shipbuilding platforms.

Hu Yu oversaw the migration of cultivated civilizations into Alliance territory while worrying about hidden threats and the uneasy state of the galaxy. Two thousand years after the defensive-line battle, Zhou Xiaohua solved how to locate three-dimensional coordinates from four-dimensional space, giving the Alliance a way to operate without coordinate base stations within the Milky Way.

• Hu Yu visited Alliance Space’s enormous research center and learned that scientists from many civilizations gathered there to study and observe advanced experiments.
• Hu Yu told Earth’s academicians and generals about the Andromeda Civilization and explained that the great star region civilizations’ warning system would give the Alliance time to relocate.
• The cultivated civilizations rushed to migrate into the designated region, seeking territory, resources, and technological rewards, while independently developed civilizations were forbidden from going.
• Several civilizations secretly researched technology and strengthened themselves after moving, while Hu Yu remained troubled by the galaxy’s dangers and the silence of the force behind the Fish Horse Star Civilization.
• Two thousand years after the great battle at the defensive line, Zhou Xiaohua discovered the spatial frequency of the three-dimensional universe and solved the problem of locating its coordinates from the fourth dimension.