Chapter Summaries

Humanity continued developing black-hole-powered Expellers while the Fish Horse Star Civilization prepared to use Space Maze equipment against the bugs threatening its fortress. Ci Ma captured the bugs and believed the fortress was nearing a decisive recovery.

• Human researchers used Gao Zhengyang's black-hole data and Liu Bo's verified Basic Space Theory to continue studying black holes and developing more advanced warships.
• The Fish Horse Star Civilization's returning leader told Ci Ma to install Space Maze equipment and eliminate Li Shun, then learned Li Shun wanted information that might have been leaked.
• Ci Ma transferred the Space Maze equipment to warships and activated it around the five bugs, distorting the space they occupied.
• The bugs hesitated as they tried to understand the distortion, and Fish Horse Star warships attacked and knocked them unconscious.
• Ci Ma towed the bugs away as prisoners while repairs to the fortress's outer blockade neared completion and more Space Maze equipment stood ready.

Li Shun stole extensive information from the Fish Horse Star Civilization and prepared to replace it, while Ci Ma’s fortress activated its space maze and shrugged off the Milky Way civilizations’ attacks. The fortress entered curvature travel toward the Milky Way, leaving Hu Yu and the other defenders with no way to stop it as they awaited the academicians’ research.

• Li Shun used his insect citizens to copy brainwave information from Fish Horse Star officials, learning the civilization’s secrets and sending useful data to the fortress’s entrance in the Matter River.
• Li Shun ordered surviving insects to keep scouting near Boötes and began modifying more insects so he could overwhelm the Milky Way civilizations and claim their territory.
• Ci Ma’s forces installed and activated maze devices powered by the black hole, causing the Super Fortress to vanish from view and reflect or trap incoming attacks and ships.
• Academician Zeng told Hu Yu that the fortress could not be harmed until its internal space devices were destroyed, then returned to the Secondary Universe to seek a solution.
• Hu Yu coordinated the fleets as the fortress and the Mechanical Civilization inflicted heavy losses, but the defenders could not stop the fortress from advancing.
• The Super Fortress entered curvature travel at fifty times the speed of light and left Boötes for the Milky Way while Hu Yu and Wen Zhonghua could only await the academicians’ results.

The Fish Horse Star Civilization demonstrated its Space Maze, overwhelming the Milky Way civilizations, while Hu Yu returned to the Secondary Universe and founded the Star Ring Academy of Sciences. He and the leader of Heavenly Peak discussed the suspected leak of base coordinates and the possibility of a traitor, but Hu Yu did not reveal whom he suspected most.

• The Fish Horse Star Civilization trapped enemy warships in a shifting Space Maze and withdrew its ships as its fortress advanced, leaving the Milky Way civilizations unable to challenge its strength.
• The academicians made little progress studying Super Fortress fragments without a black hole's gravity.
• Hu Yu returned to the Secondary Universe after a long drug-induced sleep and established the Star Ring Academy of Sciences.
• The leader of Heavenly Peak brought nearly twenty thousand scientists to join the academy and praised its future.
• Hu Yu and the leader of Heavenly Peak discussed the exposed bases, the Mechanical Civilization fleet, and which civilizations might have betrayed them.
• The leader of Heavenly Peak asked Hu Yu whom he suspected most, and the chapter ended before he answered.

Academician Xiao revealed that Mr. Daozi was the consciousness of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way, and Mr. Daozi confirmed it. Mr. Daozi began explaining the history and limitations of galactic consciousnesses.

• Someone warned that Yun San and Rock Star seemed suspicious, but admitted there was no evidence and said the base had been secretly relocated.
• Academician Xiao detected an unusually faint consciousness field while studying the worm civilians and went to the main base with his findings.
• Academician Xiao identified Mr. Daozi as the consciousness of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way, and Mr. Daozi confirmed his identity.
• Mr. Daozi explained that the Milky Way’s consciousness had awakened more than ten billion years earlier and that nearby galaxies had developed consciousnesses of their own.
• Mr. Daozi said galactic consciousnesses could compete with one another but initially could neither affect matter nor change the direction of a single particle.

Daozi explained how the Milky Way’s consciousness was born from its central black hole and how the Snow Tribe’s attack on Andromeda ended in disaster. Zu recounted how Daozi saved him and the Snow Tribe, while Daozi revealed that he had helped them hide in Sextans A.

• Daozi said the galactic consciousness had manipulated the Snow Tribe into attacking Andromeda, whose Deep Space Civilization then devastated the Milky Way and attacked its central black hole.
• Daozi explained that the black hole transferred its consciousness field into him before its destruction, leaving the galactic consciousness without self-awareness.
• Zu asked whether the Doomsday Civilization and Knight Civilization might still survive, and Daozi said he could not be certain.
• Daozi explained that destroying a galaxy’s central black hole would release the energy that sustained its consciousness field.
• Zu recalled how the galactic consciousness persuaded him to lead the Snow Tribe into war, and how Daozi saved his fading consciousness and placed it in the Secondary Universe.
• Daozi told Yan Xue that he had arranged for Sextans A’s black hole to alter the Snow Tribe’s consciousness fields so the Deep Space Civilization could not identify them.

Daozi revealed how he had fostered life and humanity in the Milky Way while trying to protect its weakened galactic consciousness from the Andromeda Civilization and the Insect Race. He warned that the Fish Horse Star Civilization sought control of the central black hole and had created a powerful false consciousness inside its fortress.

• Daozi revealed that he had arranged help during humanity's war against the Giant General Civilization, including the discovery of Third Energy.
• Daozi explained that he had seeded life across the Milky Way after the Deep Space Civilization stopped its purges two billion years earlier.
• Daozi recounted creating the first humans with the Insect Race's Consciousness Field, then abandoning them because of their destructive behavior.
• Daozi described how the Insect Emperor had forced the galactic consciousness back into slumber and how the five Great Star Region Civilizations had united without his intervention.
• Daozi said the Fish Horse Star Civilization was likely created by the Doomsday Civilization and the Knight Civilization to seize control of the weakened central black hole.
• Daozi revealed that the Fish Horse Star Civilization's fortress contained a false black hole consciousness whose powerful attacks carried a risk of severe backlash.

Mr. Daozi explained the Abyss, the Insect Race, and the threats facing the galaxy, including the Fish Horse Star Civilization's research into the galactic consciousness. He warned that the fortress might be near completion and told Zu to stay hidden, while promising to seek a way to free him after the crisis.

• Mr. Daozi said the Fish Horse Star Civilization might be feeding humans to insects in an attempt to understand the Insect Emperor and the galactic black hole.
• Mr. Daozi explained that the Abyss was a higher-dimensional universe where the Insect Race lived among powerful, incomprehensible existences.
• Mr. Daozi said destroying the Insect Emperor could end the insect scourge, but its evolutions were draining the galactic consciousness and bringing it close to collapse.
• Mr. Daozi warned Hu Yu that the Fish Horse Star Civilization's fortress might be nearing the final stage of its research and that they would be finished if it reached the galaxy's center.
• Mr. Daozi told Zu that a being seeking him wanted to use him as a stepping stone to seize the galactic consciousness, and advised him not to go out.
• Mr. Daozi said the galactic consciousness distrusted Zu because of his grave mistake, but promised to find a way to release him after the crisis.

Daozi questioned the Nebula Consciousnesses and suspected that a first-generation one might be behind Zu’s opponent, then assigned them to different duties. He also revealed that Xie Jinqiao’s Consciousness Field had been preserved and set off with Wen Zhonghua and Number One to seek help from the Aurora and Firefly Civilizations.

• Daozi explained that the Eagle Nebula’s consciousnesses could control matter because it formed their bodies, then asked the seven young Nebula Consciousnesses about their origins.
• Number One said they were second-generation Nebula Consciousnesses and could not find the first generation, so Daozi took Number One with him and assigned roles to the others.
• Daozi suspected a first-generation Nebula Consciousness might be Zu’s opponent and told Wen Zhonghua to continue researching consciousness attacks.
• Luo Zhigao asked about saving Xie Jinqiao, and Daozi said he had preserved Xie’s Consciousness Field but could not separate it from the black hole’s energy.
• Daozi chose Wen Zhonghua and Number One to accompany him to Sextans A to recruit the Aurora and Firefly Civilizations, while explaining that the Ant King and Haotian Civilizations had fled.

Daozi left with Wen Zhonghua and Number One to seek help from the Aurora Civilization and the Firefly Civilization, while Hu Yu’s forces prepared to resist the approaching Super Fortress. The Milky Way’s civilizations began fleeing as the fortress continued advancing and the galaxy grew desolate.

• Daozi departed with Wen Zhonghua and Number One to seek help from the Aurora Civilization and the Firefly Civilization.
• Academicians told the generals that research into Third Energy remained incomplete and that Academician Xiao had prepared biological warriors to attack the Insect Emperor’s consciousness.
• Hu Yu loaded Virtual Matter and two-dimensional fragments from the Secondary Universe base and returned to the greater universe.
• Hu Yu’s forces considered using large-scale spatial attacks against the Super Fortress and Mechanical Civilization’s fleet.
• Galactic civilizations fled toward other galaxies as the Super Fortress neared the Milky Way, leaving the galaxy increasingly empty.

Hu Yu organized the surviving Milky Way civilizations to build a vast reversed-state barrier around the galactic central black hole, hoping to stop the Fish Horse Star Civilization’s Super Fortress and buy time. The project began, but the protective shell remained far from complete.

• Hu Yu realized that the galactic central black hole was the target of several enemies and ordered Li Zhixiong to bring all the Reversed State equipment from the Secondary Universe while suspending Conqueror production.
• Hu Yu recalled the allied civilizations to the Milky Way and urged them to unite in protecting the central black hole.
• Hu Yu proposed filling the region within 100 light-years of the black hole with energy and converting it into a reversed-state protective shell, asking the civilizations to finish within 500 years.
• The Black Civilization and the White Civilization joined the effort, bringing their fleets and shared research to the defense.
• More than twenty quadrillion surviving warships opened passages to the fourth dimension and began using Reversed State equipment, while the Milky Way’s vast protective barrier remained incomplete.

The Yun San leader followed the shadowy figure’s orders to hunt Hu Yu and humanity’s senior command, then devised a plan to use the humans descended from Li Shun’s people as bait. He was left considering how to lure Hu Yu away from the Expeller warship.

• The shadowy figure told the Yun San leader to relocate the base and prepare to hunt Hu Yu and humanity’s senior command, explaining that he wanted the Fish Horse Star Civilization’s fortress and data but not its people.
• The Yun San leader agreed to serve the shadowy figure and began weighing the risks of assassinating Hu Yu, whose surveillance systems and protections made the hunt difficult.
• The Yun San leader recalled that the Yun San Civilization had secretly moved Li Shun’s people to a hidden planet in its fourth-dimensional base after Hu Yu failed to find them.
• The Yun San leader decided to use Li Shun’s people to lure Hu Yu out, but worried that Hu Yu would arrive aboard the heavily protected Expeller warship.

Leader Yun San sent First-Tier Mother Insects through a passage to overwhelm the human planet, plunging its population into panic and violence. Fang Wei, the planet’s leader, called for a worldwide truce and a united defense as armed forces moved against the swarm.

• At Yun San’s direction, warships brought the human planet to a sparsely populated corner of the Milky Way and connected it to a unit of First-Tier Mother Insects.
• Millions of mother insects poured through the passage, forming a mountain that consumed two nearby cities and spread across the planet.
• As the swarm’s arrival triggered panic, crime, and fighting, General Bai mutinied with part of the army against Fang Wei.
• Fang Wei recalled how he had led the survivors after Hu Yu abandoned more than 800 billion people on the planet, leaving fewer than two million alive after ten years.
• Fang Wei ordered a distress signal and a worldwide broadcast urging people to lay down their arms and unite against the swarm.
• Scattered armed forces began advancing on the insect mountain, unaware that the mother insects would continue evolving.

Fang Wei sent a distress signal as the mother insects overwhelmed his planet, and the Far Watcher Civilization dispatched Hu Yu to investigate. Hu Yu decided to go himself despite the planet’s unexplained displacement, leaving Gao Jianchuan in command.

• Mother insects opened passages across the planet, and Fang Wei realized that its people had little chance of escaping.
• Fang Wei sent a distress signal, which a Far Watcher Civilization warship received months later.
• The patrol warship found the planet overrun and sent Hu Yu a recording showing that the planet’s buried memories had resurfaced.
• Hu Yu agreed to investigate after the Leader of the Far-Seers provided the planet’s coordinates.
• Gao Jianchuan warned Hu Yu that the planet had shifted more than seventy thousand light-years, but Hu Yu chose to go in person and left Gao Jianchuan in command.

Hu Yu reached Fang Wei’s insect-ravaged planet and began rescuing its survivors while investigating who had orchestrated the crisis. As he used a holographic decoy to draw out the hidden enemy, the Yun San Civilization opened a passage and a strange fleet attacked the Insect Emperor.

• Hu Yu took 50 trillion Blazing Sun Civilization battleships and 100 Expellers toward Fang Wei’s planet as the Yun San leader prepared to ambush him.
• Hu Yu arrived at the desolate planet, found Fang Wei alive, and learned that the starry sky had changed shortly before the insects appeared.
• Hu Yu suspected a plot against humanity but concealed his presence inside an Expeller and ordered RoboCops to rescue survivors from underground fortresses.
• Hu Yu sent a holographic decoy onto the planet, and a hidden reconnaissance device relayed the image to the Yun San leader.
• The Yun San leader connected two devices through the fourth dimension, while a concealed fleet attacked the Insect Emperor and struck his body.

The Insect Emperor sent a smaller version of itself through the fourth dimension and used a consciousness attack to incapacitate Hu Yu. As the Expellers tried to evacuate him, swarms of mechanical entities found a way into his ship.

• After its body was damaged, the Insect Emperor sent a miniature version of itself through the fourth dimension toward Hu Yu.
• The miniature Insect Emperor evaded the fleets’ attacks and knocked Hu Yu unconscious with a consciousness attack before returning to its massive shell.
• The mechanical police rescued a little over a million people, who unexpectedly came back to life after dying for a few seconds.
• The Blazing Sun Battleships returned to Hong Lie, while the Expellers stalled because Hu Yu was unconscious and their Superintelligent Robots could not decide what to do.
• As mechanical entities flooded the fourth dimension, the Expellers entered it to escort Hu Yu away.
• The mechanical entities swarmed Hu Yu’s Expeller, opened its hatch, and rushed inside.

Hu Yu was taken from the Yun San Civilization’s attack by an unidentified fleet, but he remained unconscious after the Insect Emperor’s consciousness attack. Gao Jianchuan and his allies learned that Hu Yu’s life and whereabouts were unknown and resolved to keep the news secret.

• The Yun San leader sent mechanical units to seize Hu Yu after the Insect Emperor left, but an unidentified fleet rescued him and escaped into four-dimensional space.
• The Superintelligent Robots attacked the mechanical units and pursued the rescuers, while the Yun San leader withdrew his forces and reconsidered the odds that Hu Yu had survived.
• The Yun San leader learned that the humans on the planet had revived, raising his estimate that Hu Yu might also recover, though Hu Yu had not yet awakened.
• Commander Huang Chi’s crew examined Hu Yu, found his consciousness field close to dissipating, and planned to return him secretly to the human base for treatment by Academician Xiao.
• Gao Jianchuan, Li Zhixiong, and Chen Peng learned that Hu Yu had been taken by an unidentified fleet, and Gao Jianchuan urged them to keep the matter confidential.

Hu Yu and Gao Jianchuan revealed that Hu Yu’s apparent death was a deception meant to expose a traitor, but an unidentified fleet had genuinely taken him away. Meanwhile, the Yun San Civilization planned to exploit Hu Yu’s presumed death, and Chen Peng searched for the missing fleet without knowing the truth.

• Gao Jianchuan ordered Li Zhixiong to secretly inform Minister Luo and sent Chen Peng to search for the fleet that abducted Hu Yu, while making the human forces appear to return as usual.
• Hu Yu told Gao Jianchuan that the abducting fleet was different from the force that attacked him, and they planned to wait for the first civilization seeking confirmation of his fate to expose the mastermind behind their leaked base locations.
• Gao Jianchuan explained that Hu Yu’s artificial body could mimic his Consciousness Field, and Hu Yu told him to keep the operation secret and have Chen Peng only pretend to pursue the abductors.
• At the Yun San Civilization’s base, its leader ordered continued surveillance of the humans and planned to use the Demon Scorpion and Mechanical Civilizations against them once Hu Yu’s death was confirmed.
• Chen Peng rushed after the miniature spacecraft’s last known coordinates, fearing for Hu Yu and blaming himself for letting him act alone.

Huang Chi’s forces mistook Hu Yu for a biological duplicate and decided to conceal him so Yun San would believe he was dead. Meanwhile, Hu Yu revealed himself to Luo Zhigao and Li Zhixiong, but Chen Peng continued searching for him for six months before finally giving up.

• Huang Chi ordered Jin Yan to scan Hu Yu and concluded that the unusually healthy man was a duplicate rather than the real Hu Yu.
• Huang Chi refused to return Hu Yu to the humans and arranged a spatial transfer so Yun San’s side would assume Hu Yu was dead.
• Luo Zhigao rushed to the greater universe after Li Zhixiong reported Hu Yu’s disappearance, then found Hu Yu chatting with Gao Jianchuan.
• Hu Yu decided to reveal himself to Luo Zhigao and Li Zhixiong after more than a month, while keeping Chen Peng searching to avoid alerting the mastermind.
• Gao Jianchuan urged Chen Peng to accept reality, and Chen Peng finally ended his search after nearly six months.

Chen Peng returned without finding Hu Yu, leaving the Yun San leader convinced that Hu Yu was dead while humanity concealed the truth. Decades later, as the Fish Horse Star Civilization’s fortress neared the Milky Way, Luo Zhigao deflected the Yun San leader’s questions, and Wei Kaiyuan reported that scientists had deciphered the enemy’s data.

• Chen Peng returned to the galactic central base after searching for Hu Yu for six months, and the Yun San leader concluded that Hu Yu might have died.
• The Far Watcher Civilization investigated the planet, and Gao Jianchuan asked its leader to move it somewhere safe.
• Over a century passed as the Reversed State enveloped the galactic central black hole and the Fish Horse Star Civilization’s fortress approached the Milky Way.
• Hu Yu let Luo Zhigao answer the Yun San leader’s questions, and the Yun San leader became certain that Hu Yu was no longer among humanity.
• Wei Kaiyuan told Hu Yu that scientists had deciphered the Fish Horse Star Civilization’s stolen data and uncovered a plan with nearly a one-hundred-percent chance of success.

Li Shun continued strengthening his fleet while Hu Yu’s team investigated evidence linking the Yun San Civilization to the Insect Emperor’s emergence. The leader of the Far Watcher Civilization told Gao Jianchuan that Yun San had helped the Mechanical Civilization attack Hu Yu’s fleet, but had not yet explained what proof he possessed.

• Li Shun told Wei Kaiyuan to focus on building the fleet while his researchers worked on a way to kill the shadow.
• Hu Yu’s scientists recovered fragments of a self-destructed device from the planet where the Insect Emperor had appeared and sent them to the Star Ring Academy of Sciences for analysis.
• The leader of the Far Watcher Civilization visited the Expeller and asked Gao Jianchuan what had happened to Hu Yu.
• Gao Jianchuan admitted that Hu Yu had been missing for over a century and said the Mechanical Civilization might have attacked him.
• The Far Watcher leader revealed that the Yun San Civilization had also been behind the attack and said his civilization’s hidden reconnaissance devices had recorded evidence near the scene.