Chapter Summaries

Humanity expanded its fourth-dimensional fleet and improved its navigation and weapons while pursuing zero-latency communications. When Hu Yu’s forces located the recovered galactic Insect King beside Li Shun’s fleet, they secretly marked the warships and prepared a 500-billion-Conqueror strike.

• Humanity mapped the three-dimensional universe’s spatial frequency and increased production to 300 million Conquerors per year, hiding most of its nearly four trillion ships in the fourth dimension.
• Hu Yu continued backing up humanity’s technology among the Tree Race while Academician Xiao improved the Consciousness Field weapon and biological warriors gained control over higher-rank insects.
• A two-dimensional Conqueror spotted the recovered galactic Insect King surrounded by high-rank insects and saucer-shaped warships feeding pale brains to the swarm.
• Academician Zeng investigated communication failures and latency in the fourth dimension while pursuing a stable zero-latency system.
• Hu Yu ordered miniature two-dimensional spacecraft to mark Li Shun’s warships and the Insect King, then readied 500 billion Conquerors to strike Li Shun’s fleet once its position was confirmed.

Hu Yu and his companions discovered that Li Shun’s Number Three Base mass-produced humans to harvest their brains and control insects, and they waited for a chance to trace the operation to Li Shun. Their plan stalled when the warships delivering embryos stayed at the base instead of returning to reveal their origin.

• Hu Yu’s miniature spacecraft entered a giant ring structure and found rows of human embryos developing in incubation chambers.
• Hu Yu and his companions overheard supervisors describe harvesting brains, implanting memories, and cultivating more humans to control insects for Li Shun.
• Wen Zhonghua and the others condemned Li Shun, while Hu Yu reasoned that Li Shun controlled the insects and had likely advanced to Great Star Region Civilization.
• Hu Yu and his companions watched the base for over a decade, but its workers never revealed anything about Li Shun’s other bases.
• When warships arrived with embryos, Hu Yu’s miniature spacecraft boarded one, but the ships stayed nearby after unloading, leaving Wen Zhonghua frustrated that Li Shun remained out of reach.

Hu Yu and the fleet continued searching unsuccessfully for Li Shun while Hu Yu struggled under the burden of leading the Alliance. Hu Yunhang proposed creating the appearance that Hu Yu had died and the Star Ring Alliance had fallen into chaos, and the group began planning a covert deception to lure Li Shun out.

• The fleet leaders admitted they had failed to locate Li Shun, and Hu Yu returned home exhausted from his responsibilities.
• Hu Yunhang came home after two sleepless nights, discussed the defensive line with Hu Yu, and suggested making Li Shun believe the Alliance was in chaos so he would attack.
• Hu Yunhang fell asleep from exhaustion, and Hu Yu shared a tender moment with Xiao Xiao before returning to fleet business.
• Hu Yu told the group about Hu Yunhang's idea, and they devised a plan to make it appear that Hu Yu had died and the Star Ring Alliance had fallen apart.
• The group decided to stage the deception quietly so Li Shun would believe the evidence he uncovered himself.

Hu Yu prepared the Solar System for a major operation while humanity and the Xuan Star Civilization withdrew their fleets, prompting other civilizations to suspect that something had happened to him. As the Fish Horse Star Civilization and another power considered exploiting the situation, the chapter left humanity facing several potential enemies.

• Hu Yu secured the alliance civilizations' cooperation, recalled humanity's Conquerors, and moved the inhabitants of human planets to Tree Race planets in preparation for his plan.
• Human and Xuan Star Civilization fleets withdrew from the defensive line, while unusual fleet redeployments across the Star Ring Alliance drew suspicion from other civilizations.
• The Linglong Civilization's leader concluded that Hu Yu might be in danger and chose to monitor events while preparing for a possible attack.
• The Fish Horse Star Civilization's first leader decided to prepare for war, intending to destroy humanity and the Xuan Star Civilization and capture Li Shun.

Humanity and the Xuan Star Civilization staged a battle to draw out Li Shun, who had prepared fifty trillion weaponized mechanical insects. After Li Shun’s base was found, Hu Yu sent 1.3 trillion Conquerors to attack, leaving Bi Cha to guard the alliance.

• Rumors spread that Hu Yu had died, while Hu Yu stayed hidden with the Xuan Star Civilization and coordinated a staged conflict with General Bi Cha.
• The Xuan Star Civilization sent 200 billion Endeavors to fight humanity’s Conquerors near Barnard’s Star, then moved another 600 billion warships toward the Solar System.
• Hu Yu revealed 300 billion more Conquerors in the Solar System, while Li Shun’s forces mistook the staged battle for an opportunity to attack humanity.
• Li Shun revealed his hidden base outside the galaxy and sent fifty trillion modified mechanical insects toward the Solar System.
• Li Zhixiong found Li Shun’s base, and Hu Yu ordered all 1.3 trillion Conquerors to move out while Bi Cha stayed behind to protect the alliance.

Li Shun sent a massive fleet of modified warships toward the Solar System and Alliance Space after the Star Ring Alliance exposed his deception and moved to guard humanity. Hu Yu prepared the Conquerors to contain the advancing mechanical insects, setting the Oort Cloud as their final defensive line.

• Li Shun realized Hu Yu was alive and ordered the mechanical insects to scatter toward the Star Ring Alliance while he pushed the fortress civilizations to act.
• More than fifty fortress civilizations sent fifty trillion upgraded warships into the fourth dimension, and the Heavenly Peak Civilization warned Hu Yu that Li Shun had likely armed them.
• A huge fleet split in two, sending five trillion warships toward the Solar System and the rest toward Alliance Space, while Hu Yu recalled the Conquerors and dispatched a two-dimensional warship to track Li Shun.
• The Conquerors intercepted part of the scattered mechanical insect swarm beyond the Third Spiral Arm, and Hu Yu narrowed the battle zone to human territory around the Solar System.
• As the mechanical insects continued to arrive and attack the Solar System, Hu Yu ordered the Conquerors to fight while retreating toward the Oort Cloud for a final battle.

Li Shun’s mechanical bugs and secretly controlled fleets confronted Hu Yu’s forces near the Solar System, while the Xuan Star Civilization revealed a trillion Dreadnoughts. The Conquerors fought off the swarm, but the mechanical bugs’ overwhelming numbers and firepower began to break through their defenses.

• Bi Cha revealed a trillion Dreadnoughts, and Hu Yu welcomed the added strength of the Xuan Star Civilization’s fleet.
• Li Shun demanded the technology tree and revealed that he had replaced the brains of the Black Wolf Civilization and the Long-Eyed Civilization’s leaders.
• Hu Yu ordered the attack, beginning a dimensional battle between the Conquerors and the mechanical bug swarm as the ragtag fleet waited for an opening toward the Solar System.
• The mechanical bugs ignored the Consciousness Field impact weapons, forcing Hu Yu to stop using them.
• Li Shun’s huge number of copied mechanical units supplied the bugs with vast quantities of weapons, and their assault opened gaps in the Conquerors’ defenses.

The Conquerors struggled to contain the mechanical insect swarm as Hu Yu deployed biological warriors to seize control of the insects. Meanwhile, the motley fleet attacked the Crystal Civilization, but the Xuan Star Civilization’s Dreadnoughts covered its evacuation before forcing the attackers to retreat.

• The mechanical insects breached several sectors, inflicting heavy losses on the Conquerors, while Aquila Civilization warships secretly destroyed insects that reached the Solar System.
• Hu Yu ordered Number One and the others to guard the Solar System’s fourth dimension and deployed 50 trillion biological warriors behind the insect swarm.
• The motley fleet abandoned its attempt to join the battle and attacked the Crystal Civilization’s fleet.
• Bi Cha’s Dreadnoughts blocked the motley fleet’s assault, but suicide attacks using four-dimensional space damaged them as they protected the Crystal Civilization’s evacuation.
• After the Crystal Civilization’s planets escaped, the Dreadnoughts pursued the motley fleet, which lost two trillion warships and retreated.

The Fish Horse Star Civilization’s main fleet appeared during the battle for the Solar System, forcing Li Shun to abandon two bases as it advanced toward Alliance Space. The five Great Star Region Advanced Civilizations assembled to confront it, and the Fish Horse fleet began a surprise attack by folding space.

• The Conqueror and its allies struggled to defend the Solar System as mechanical insects broke through, while Li Zhixiong asked whether they should evacuate.
• The Fish Horse Star Civilization’s fleet appeared, and Hu Yu ordered the alliance civilizations to flee after recognizing it as the main force behind the branch they had destroyed.
• Li Shun ordered the civilians and mechanical bodies to escape, abandoned Number Two Base and Number Three Base, and instructed his forces to protect Number One Base.
• The leaders of Tian Feng, Demon Scorpion, Dark Moon, and Rock Star assembled their fleets to block the Fish Horse Star Civilization near Alliance Space.
• The Fish Horse Star Civilization declared its intent to destroy half the opposing fleet, warped space around the five civilizations’ ships, and attacked after appearing among them.

Hu Yu used hidden Two-Dimensional Conquerors and bombs to destroy the Fish Horse Star Civilization’s fleet and mechanical swarm in the Solar System. With the alliance’s people evacuated, the Fish Horse Star fleet turned toward the Solar System, and Hu Yu faced a new threat.

• The Fish Horse Star Civilization attacked the joint fleet by manipulating dimensions, and Hu Yu learned that it was the mastermind behind the scheme.
• Hu Yu learned that the Yun San Civilization and the Heavenly Peak Civilization could not send help, so he ordered Bi Cha to evacuate the alliance’s people and Zhonghua to deploy the Two-Dimensional Conquerors.
• The Two-Dimensional Conquerors planted bombs inside five trillion Fish Horse Star warships and more than 40 trillion mechanical insects without being detected.
• Hu Yu activated the bombs, destroying every Fish Horse Star warship and mechanical insect on the battlefield in less than a minute.
• The Fish Horse Star fleet fighting the five Great Star Region Civilizations turned toward the Solar System, while Hu Yu sent the evacuated alliance beings through space channels to the defensive line.

Hu Yu and the alliance used the Solar System as bait to hold off the Fish Horse Star fleet while other civilizations escaped. As the trapped human and Xuan Star forces faced destruction, Hu Yu’s hidden matter-antimatter planets triggered a black hole that began swallowing the enemy fleet.

• Hu Yu hid the planets and sent two trillion Conquerors to the Tree Race, while the remaining Conquerors and Xuan Star Endeavors waited at the empty Solar System.
• The Fish Horse Star fleet arrived and bombarded the empty system, then surrounded the Conquerors and Endeavors with shattered space that prevented their escape and attacks.
• General Bi Cha told Hu Yu that the Endeavors could not reach the fourth dimension and urged him to save his fleet, while other civilizations remained in spatial channels.
• Hu Yu’s twenty pairs of two-dimensional matter and antimatter planets approached the encircled Fish Horse Star fleet from all directions.
• Hu Yu deactivated the Two-Dimensional Basic Space, and the planet pairs collided, causing explosions that compounded into a rapidly expanding black hole.
• The black hole reached the Fish Horse Star fleet and began swallowing its warships.

The Conquerors and Endeavors used spatial collapse to destroy trillions of Fish Horse Star warships before retreating into the fourth dimension. The Fish Horse Star fleet traced the four-dimensional network to the Tree Race base and ordered its destruction, while Hu Yu remained unaware and the Conquerors fought to buy the alliance time to evacuate.

• Twenty spatial black holes swallowed more than a hundred billion Fish Horse Star ships, and the Fish Horse Star commander ordered the fleet to enter the fourth dimension.
• The Conquerors and Endeavors disrupted space to delay the fleet, but the Fish Horse Star warships raised space's dimensionality and stopped the black holes from advancing.
• The human and Xuan Star Civilization fleets withdrew into the fourth dimension after the spatial collapse destroyed more than three trillion Fish Horse Star warships.
• Fish Horse Star tracked the four-dimensional network to a human residential base at the Tree Race, and its First Leader ordered everyone there killed.
• Hu Yu and the senior officers coordinated the Conquerors as they retreated, aiming to draw Fish Horse Star attacks until the alliance's civilizations reached safety.

The Fish Horse Star fleet split off to attack the Tree Race’s hidden base, where ten trillion humans and the Tree Race were badly outmatched. Hu Yu raced to help as the Tree Race evacuated toward the Mirror Sub-Universe, leaving the fleet to hold off the attackers until reinforcements arrived.

• Yun San, Heavenly Peak, Rock Star, Dark Moon, and Demon Scorpion agreed to send fleets to help the humans, and twenty trillion warships headed for the Solar System.
• Hu Yu and Bi Cha realized that ten trillion Fish Horse Star warships were heading for the Tree Race’s base, which held ten trillion humans and too few defenders to resist them.
• Hu Yu warned Gao Jianchuan and Ninety-Seven to hold the Fish Horse Star fleet until reinforcements arrived, then led five hundred billion unexposed Conquerors toward the base.
• Academician Zeng and Academician Liu told Ninety-Seven to move the Tree Race’s planet toward the coordinates of the Mirror Sub-Universe as a possible escape route.
• Gao Jianchuan used robots to evacuate the ten trillion humans onto one billion Conquerors, which then set off toward the designated coordinates.

The Fish Horse Star fleet overwhelmed the Conquerors and trapped humanity and the Tree Race near the Mirror Sub-Universe exit. Daozi revealed that the Fish Horse Star Civilization came from outside the Milky Way and that he could not save them.

• Gao Jianchuan sent Conquerors to detonate four-dimensional space beside Fish Horse Star warships, but the attacks failed to damage them.
• The Fish Horse Star fleet destroyed nearly 800 billion more Conquerors while the evacuated civilians continued toward the Mirror Sub-Universe exit aboard two-dimensional warships.
• Hu Yu reached the Tree Race's planet and urged Ninety-Seven to keep traveling toward the designated coordinates, but the Fish Horse fleet did not appear as expected.
• Hu Yu discovered the Mirror Sub-Universe exit was surrounded by Fish Horse fleets, and the Tree Race's planet arrived to find the surrounding space sealed off.
• Academician Zeng blamed himself for leading humanity into the trap, while Daozi said the Fish Horse Civilization's origins beyond the Milky Way left him powerless.

The five Great Star Region Civilizations arrived to rescue humanity and the Tree Race from the Fish Horse Star Civilization’s encirclement, but the battle left both trapped amid devastating spatial attacks. As the combined fleet struggled to break through the inner blockade, the Fish Horse Star fleet began moving its outer encirclement at high speed.

• Daozi withdrew as the five Great Star Region Civilizations arrived, and Hu Yu explained humanity’s predicament without mentioning Zu.
• The combined fleet decided to break through the Fish Horse Star blockade so humanity and the Tree Race could escape into the Mirror Sub-Universe.
• The Fish Horse Star fleet attacked the Two-Dimensional Conquerors while the combined fleet fought its way through the outer encirclement.
• The combined fleet attacked the densely packed inner blockade, and Hu Yu witnessed both sides use powerful spatial weapons.
• Raging battle energy destroyed Tree Race planets and struck the Two-Dimensional Conquerors as the Fish Horse Star outer fleet began moving at high speed.

The Fish Horse Star Civilization created a spatial millstone that trapped and destroyed the combined fleets, leaving Hu Yu and humanity facing imminent annihilation. Hu Yu sent two trillion Conquerors toward the industrial base and broadcast signals before the remaining people prepared to meet their end.

• The Fish Horse Star fleet formed a fast-spinning spatial millstone, and the Heavenly Peak Civilization warned the others that it would grind their fleets into elementary particles.
• Hu Yu ordered the Conquerors to attack, but the chaotic space trapped the combined fleet and the Fish Horse Star warships began disintegrating along with their opponents.
• Yun San and the Heavenly Peak Civilization discussed a suicide attack, while Ninety-Seven told Hu Yu that the Tree Race could no longer use spatial transfer.
• Hu Yu sent two trillion Conquerors into the fourth dimension toward the industrial base and broadcast gravitational-wave signals across the galaxy.
• The people aboard the remaining warships calmly accepted their imminent deaths as Hu Yu regretted the choices that had brought humanity to this position.

Hu Yu and the human fleet fought to escape the Fish Horse Star Civilization’s spatial millstone after Feng Ye found a way to exploit its pattern. Bi Cha and the Xuan Star Civilization helped stabilize space, but the fleet remained trapped as the Tree Race’s old patriarch proposed trying to slow the millstone’s deadly center.

• Hu Yu prepared to face destruction until Bi Cha told him Feng Ye had found a pattern in the spatial millstone and urged him to fight.
• Hu Yu sent two trillion Conquerors to attack the Fish Horse Star fleet, opening a gap at the cost of tens of billions of Conquerors and tens of trillions of lives.
• The Dreadnoughts entered the gap, and Bi Cha followed Hu Yu into the millstone as the surviving fleet was swept toward its center.
• The Dreadnoughts briefly stabilized space, allowing the fleet to move outward, but Hu Yu warned that escape would still leave them vulnerable to the Fish Horse Star fleet.
• The Tree Race’s old patriarch asked Bi Cha whether he could slow the center’s spatial rotation, and Bi Cha said the Xuan Star Civilization might reduce it to around a thousand times the speed of light.

Hu Yu and the survivors tried to cross the spatial millstone into the Mirror Sub-Universe while the Tree Race patriarch and Grand Elder Zhigu sacrificed themselves to hold open a passage. The surviving fleet escaped into spatial fragments, but the cost was immense, and the Fish Horse Star Civilization’s fleet turned back.

• Hu Yu sent Conquerors and Dreadnoughts toward the spatial intersection as Academician Zeng urged him to raise the energy density and create an opening for the Xuan Star Civilization’s warships.
• The old Tree Race patriarch and Grand Elder Zhigu channeled energy through the intersection, while Ninety-Seven’s two fruits reinforced their weakening bands.
• Thirty billion Tree Race elders self-destructed to force open a passage, but the transfer still failed.
• The Tree Race patriarch sacrificed himself and stripped away many of his people, allowing Hu Yu and the remaining humans to enter the spatial fragments.
• Hu Yu put Chen Peng in command as the survivors mourned their losses, and the Fish Horse Star Civilization fleet turned back rather than pursue them.

After Hu Yu’s fleet suffered a devastating defeat, Bi Cha stopped him from taking his own life and urged the survivors to rebuild. Ten years later, humanity had regrouped inside a space fragment in the Mirror Sub-Universe, where they worked to restore their technology and find new energy sources.

• Hu Yu tried to shoot himself over the deaths of more than fifty quadrillion compatriots, but Bi Cha took his sidearm and persuaded him to live for the survivors.
• News of humanity’s defeat and the Fish Horse Star Civilization’s overwhelming strength spread across the Milky Way, while Great Star Region Civilizations barred other civilizations from leaving.
• The Fish Horse Star Civilization investigated Li Shun’s Second Base but found nothing because Li Shun had been vigilant.
• Ten years passed in the Mirror Sub-Universe, where Hu Yu’s fleet sheltered inside a space fragment and conserved its dwindling energy.
• Humanity dismantled some Conquerors for materials, worked to rebuild its equipment and food supply, and had academicians study how to obtain energy from pure space.

Hu Yu reflected on the Tree Race’s losses and the mysteries surrounding the Fish Horse Star Civilization and the Mechanical Civilization while the fleet remained stranded in the Mirror Sub-Universe. As time passed, Academician Liu joined General Bi Cha in fishing, and Bi Cha revealed that he had begun eating human food.

• Hu Yu felt guilty over the Tree Race’s devastation, while Ninety-Seven took on the bearing of a patriarch and withdrew into the Tree Race’s hollow planet to undertake an unknown task.
• Hu Yu gave the Tree Race the energy converted from 20 billion Conquerors and wondered why the Fish Horse Star Civilization and the Mechanical Civilization had come to the Milky Way.
• Hu Yu repeatedly called for Mr. Daozi, who did not appear, and resolved to question him once they escaped the spatial fragment.
• Academician Liu joined General Bi Cha at the artificial lake to fish after putting his stalled research aside.
• Bi Cha told Academician Liu that he had eaten the fish after Academician Xiao examined him and provided medicine, and praised human food as far better than the food of the Xuan Star Civilization.