Chapter Summaries

Gao Jianchuan and Hu Yu confirmed that the Yun San Civilization had directed the mechanical entities’ attack and had secretly sabotaged the galaxy’s efforts against the Fish Horse Star Civilization. Hu Yu ordered preparations for a swift war, including seeking the Dark Moon Civilization’s support and consulting the Star Ring Alliance and Heavenly Peak Civilization.

• The leader of the Far-Seers presented evidence that the Yun San Civilization’s fleet had followed the mechanical entities and that their damaged storage device contained a translation program linking them to the Yun San Civilization.
• Hu Yu revealed that the attacked General Hu Yu had been a biological decoy, created to uncover the traitor behind attacks on the Dark Moon Civilization’s base and humanity’s Secondary Universe base.
• Gao Jianchuan and Hu Yu explained that they had staged the deception to the leader of the Far-Seers, who agreed to find the Yun San Civilization’s home base and support their action.
• Hu Yu, Gao Jianchuan, Chen Peng, and Li Zhixiong analyzed the reconnaissance footage and device, confirming that the Yun San fleet had commanded the mechanical entities.
• Hu Yu ordered Gao Jianchuan to contact the Dark Moon Civilization’s leader secretly and said he would return to the Secondary Universe to discuss the war with the Star Ring Alliance and bring in the Heavenly Peak Civilization.

Hu Yu worked with the Heavenly Peak and Dark Moon leaders to plan a war against the Yun San Civilization after authentic evidence exposed its betrayal. The Far Watcher leader soon provided the location of Yun San’s base, and the coalition prepared to act before the Fish Horse Star Civilization reached the Milky Way.

• Hu Yu weighed the cost of attacking the Yun San Civilization and decided that the evidence had to be authenticated before he could wage war without guilt.
• The Heavenly Peak and Dark Moon leaders examined the evidence and agreed not to inform Demon Scorpion or Rock Star until the plan began.
• Hu Yu proposed disarming Yun San, confiscating its tech tree, testing everyone’s memories, and killing those who had participated in the betrayal.
• The leaders approved an action plan while sparing the wider Yun San population, and they prepared to move before the Fish Horse Star Civilization arrived.
• The Far Watcher leader sent the coordinates of the Yun San base, revealing how extensively his civilization had searched for threats to the galaxy.

Hu Yu began a covert operation against the Yun San Civilization, using RoboCops to seize its industrial base and joining allied fleets to attack its distant main base. Before the fleet departed, Academician Xiao equipped it with a new defense against Consciousness Field attacks, made from virtual reversed state material.

• Hu Yu used the Far Watcher Civilization’s reconnaissance network to locate and monitor the Yun San Civilization’s base near the Four-Dimensional Lost Zone.
• Human transports delivered tens of billions of RoboCops to the Yun San Civilization’s Secondary Universe industrial base, where they captured its people and seized its fleets.
• Hu Yu interrogated the captured workers and learned they knew nothing about their civilization’s secret dealings, while the seized fleets were assigned to the Dark Moon Civilization.
• Hu Yu, leader Tian Feng, and the Dark Moon Civilization’s leader prepared to attack the Yun San Civilization’s main base with sixty trillion ships and a small number of Slaughterers and Expellers.
• Academician Xiao asked to equip the fleet with a new consciousness-impact defense system, and Hu Yu agreed to the short delay.
• Academician Xiao revealed that the defense system used virtual reversed state material, which was at least twenty times more effective than their previous protection.

Hu Yu’s fleet reached the Yun San Civilization’s base undetected, using Expellers to conceal its ships from consciousness-field detection. The Yun San leader prepared to flee into the Lost Zone while the black shadow promised to rescue him and sought help from Demon Scorpion.

• Hu Yu learned that the virtual reversed state could block consciousness-field attacks, and Academician Xiao modified several Expellers for the coming battle.
• Hu Yu left Gao Jianchuan in charge of the galaxy and led an allied fleet toward the Yun San Civilization’s base.
• The fleet traveled folded inside the Expellers and arrived about a thousand light-years from the base before releasing its ships.
• The Yun San Civilization’s alarms sounded as its leader saw the approaching human, Heavenly Peak, Dark Moon, and other allied warships.
• The black shadow found no consciousness fields in the fleet and recognized that computer programs controlled it.
• The Yun San leader agreed to evacuate into the Lost Zone while the black shadow went to seek help from Demon Scorpion.

The Yun San leader tried to evacuate his people while using mechanical bodies to hold back the human-led fleet, but Hu Yu’s forces pushed toward the base. At the same time, Gao Jianchuan launched a surprise attack that routed the Yun San fleets in the galaxy.

• The Yun San leader rushed preparations to evacuate the civilization’s population and supplies onto warships, but the slow-moving citizens delayed the boarding.
• The Yun San leader sent every mechanical body from the base to attack the combined fleet as it approached.
• The mechanical bodies swarmed over the warships but could not breach their hatches, so Hu Yu ordered allied ships to fire on ships from the Human Civilization, the Heavenly Peak Civilization, and the Dark Moon Civilization to clear a path.
• Gao Jianchuan used his fleet’s hidden positions to surround Yun San groups in the galaxy and ordered a sudden attack.
• The Yun San fleet was routed, and Dark Moon warships killed its commander before he could understand what was happening.

Humanity and its allies destroyed the Yun San Civilization’s fleet after Gao Jianchuan announced that it had betrayed the Dark Moon Civilization. Hu Yu’s fleet reached the Yun San base too late to stop the evacuation, and the Yun San leader escaped into the Lost Zone as the civilization destroyed its home system.

• Gao Jianchuan and the Dark Moon Civilization’s commander told the galaxy that the Yun San Civilization had betrayed the Dark Moon Civilization, and the other civilizations resumed work.
• Hu Yu realized the Yun San Civilization controlled the mechanical bodies and worked with Bi Cha to clear them from the Xuan Star warships.
• The Yun San leader prepared to flee to the Lost Zone with a small group of trusted researchers, hoping to continue his research there.
• Hu Yu’s combined fleet broke through the mechanical defenses and found the Yun San Civilization’s base burning as its stars exploded.
• The Dark Moon leader ordered the fleet to pursue the escaping Yun San Civilization.

The combined fleet forced the Yun San Civilization into the Lost Zone, while Hu Yu prepared to hunt down the mechanical beings. Trapped inside the distorted region and unable to contact its scattered ships, the Yun San leader ordered the flagship to stay still.

• The combined fleet stopped at the Lost Zone's boundary after the Yun San fleet disappeared inside, and Hu Yu urged the commanders to destroy the mechanical beings.
• Hu Yu had Bi Cha explain that he had deliberately driven the Yun San fleet into the Lost Zone before arranging the hunt for the mechanical beings.
• The Yun San leader discovered that the Lost Zone obscured nearby ships, disrupted communication, and made escape seem impossible.
• After the flagship lost contact with every warship, the Yun San leader ordered it to remain in place and hoped the other ships would do the same.

Yan Xue captured the Yun San leader and the other occupants of his ship after the Slaughterers drained its energy, then returned them toward Hu Yu’s forces. Meanwhile, Dark Shadow remained unaware of the capture and appeared in the Demon Scorpion Civilization’s territory.

• Yan Xue ordered the Slaughterers to drain the energy from the Yun San leader’s ship, leaving it powerless.
• A Slaughterer breached the ship, and robots captured its occupants, including the unconscious Yun San leader.
• Yan Xue reported the successful capture to Hu Yu, who told him to deliver the prisoners to Academician Xiao and leave the other Yun San ships trapped in the Lost Zone.
• Yan Xue considered how Academician Xiao might interrogate the prisoners and uncover the Yun San Civilization’s secrets.
• Dark Shadow, unaware that the Yun San leader had been captured, appeared beside the Demon Scorpion leader, who demanded to know who he was.

The Demon Scorpion leader agreed to help a dark nebula life-form kill Zhou Dao in exchange for the Milky Way black hole’s vast store of information. Meanwhile, Hu Yu’s forces destroyed the Mechanical Lord’s mechanical entities, and recovered memories revealed the dark figure’s role in directing Yun San’s betrayal.

• A dark figure told the Demon Scorpion leader it had arranged Yun San’s actions and offered to share the Milky Way black hole’s information if the Demon Scorpion Civilization helped it seize the black hole’s consciousness.
• The dark figure asked the Demon Scorpion leader to find a way to kill Zhou Dao, promised to assist, and gave the leader an object for contacting it.
• After the dark figure left, the Demon Scorpion leader considered whether it was the hidden force he had been instructed to find and planned to hunt it down.
• Hu Yu’s fleet used consciousness-field detectors to locate and destroy the Mechanical Lord’s scattered, leaderless mechanical entities.
• In the Secondary Universe, Hu Yu and Academician Xiao examined Yun San’s memories and discovered that a long-lived conscious entity had directed the civilization’s betrayal.

Hu Yu learned that the Yun San Civilization had betrayed its allies and planned to attack Demon Scorpion, but Daozi revealed that Demon Scorpion was his longtime ally and warned Hu Yu not to strike. Daozi traced the galaxy’s hidden forces to the ancient Eagle Nebula, while Hu Yu and Number One identified Yun San’s shadowy accomplice as the previous generation of Nebula Consciousness.

• Hu Yu condemned Yun San for betraying his allies, and Academician Xiao revealed that Demon Scorpion had sent the mechanical fleet that attacked them.
• Daozi arrived with Number One, learned that Yun San was the captured mastermind, and condemned Yun San’s greed.
• Hu Yu proposed destroying Demon Scorpion before the Fish Horse Star Civilization reached the galactic center, but Daozi forbade the attack and explained that Demon Scorpion had long served as his hidden ally.
• Daozi said the Eagle Nebula had existed since the galaxy formed and was the only nebula known to have produced consciousness repeatedly.
• Hu Yu showed Number One an image of the shadow behind Yun San, and Daozi confirmed that it was the previous generation of Nebula Consciousness, whose capture might expose the forces behind the galaxy’s chaos.

The Demon Scorpion leader prepared a secret plan to capture the Nebula Consciousness and arranged to lure Zhou Dao into a trap. The shadow captured Number Five and brought him to Demon Scorpion territory, expecting Hu Yu and Zhou Dao to come searching.

• The Demon Scorpion leader discussed the coming war against the Fish Horse Star Civilization and was told to strengthen resistance forces before the Firefly Civilization and Aurora Civilization arrived.
• The Demon Scorpion leader secretly distributed pills to citizens and arranged plasma cannons, electromagnetic cannons, and planets to prepare a trap.
• Commander Huang Chi warned that the plan could endanger the entire civilization, but the Demon Scorpion leader insisted it was necessary for the galaxy.
• The Demon Scorpion leader showed the weapons to the shadow, who agreed they could harm Zhou Dao and promised to bring him there.
• The shadow captured Number Five and explained that Hu Yu and Zhou Dao would likely come looking for him.

Gao Jianchuan investigated Number Five’s disappearance as Daozi went to confront the hidden Nebula Consciousness entity. The Demon Scorpion leader turned his attack against the entity, but the red mist remained and Daozi stood motionless.

• Gao Jianchuan recalled Number Six and gathered Number Four after Number Five suddenly lost contact, then learned that Hu Yu had returned from the Secondary Universe with Daozi.
• Daozi appeared beside the Demon Scorpion leader, who contacted the dark figure and pretended to betray Zhou Dao.
• The Demon Scorpion leader activated the pill-shaped devices, which rendered the Demon Scorpion population unconscious and channeled their Consciousness Field energy into a weapon.
• The Demon Scorpion leader fired at the dark figure while the civilization’s weapons attacked it, tearing the figure apart as red mist spread across the instrument’s display.
• Zhong Shan told the Demon Scorpion leader that the Nebula Consciousness entity was gone, but the red mist remained and Daozi’s Consciousness Field had grown dimmer.

Daozi and Hu Yu pursued the weakened Nebula Consciousness Entity to the galactic center, where it tried to recover by drawing energy from the black hole. When the fleet's attacks failed to stop it, Hu Yu used Space Decomposition and Space Banishment to remove the region of space containing it.

• Daozi broke off his pursuit after the Nebula Consciousness Entity escaped toward the galactic center and warned Hu Yu that they were in serious trouble.
• Hu Yu sent the fleet and Conquerors into the fourth dimension to search near the central black hole.
• The fleet detected the Nebula Consciousness Entity replenishing itself with energy from the black hole and surrounded it.
• Hu Yu ordered spatial and consciousness field attacks, but the entity passed through the spatial attacks and recovered from the others.
• Hu Yu commanded Space Decomposition and Space Banishment, causing the Nebula Consciousness Entity to vanish with the collapsing region of four-dimensional space.

After the Nebula Consciousness Entity was banished, Daozi and Hu Yu went to rescue the Demon Scorpion Civilization, whose people were near death from exhausting their Consciousness Fields. Daozi brought them near the central black hole, where its overflow energy began restoring them, and Hu Yu and the Demon Scorpion leader pledged cooperation.

• Hu Yu confirmed that the Nebula Consciousness Entity had vanished and took Daozi toward the Demon Scorpion Civilization.
• Hu Yu explained the Yun San Civilization’s betrayal to the galaxy’s civilizations, which accepted the evidence and restored order.
• Hu Yu and Daozi found the Demon Scorpion leader’s people unconscious or disoriented after he had maximized their Consciousness Field extraction to defeat the Nebula Consciousness Entity.
• Daozi ordered the Demon Scorpion fleet to the central black hole, where its overflow energy began sustaining the people, and promised they would recover.
• Hu Yu apologized to the Demon Scorpion leader, and he and Huang Chi agreed that the Demon Scorpion Civilization and Human Civilization would face future hardships together.
• Daozi remained beside a vast mass of energy moving along the Closed Spacetime Curve inside the central black hole.

Zu returned to the greater universe and met Daozi, who asked him to take control of the central black hole to save the Demon Scorpion Civilization. After initially refusing, Zu agreed to give up his consciousness energy instead, hoping to become a free member of the Snow Tribe again.

• Zu left the Secondary Universe aboard an Expeller with the Snow Tribe group and traveled to the central black hole.
• Zu met Daozi and said he wanted to wander freely and see the changed galaxy rather than fight.
• Daozi asked Zu to replace the Black Hole Consciousness so the Demon Scorpion Civilization could be saved, but Zu refused.
• Yan Xue, Chen Xue, and the Demon Scorpion leader pleaded with Zu to help their people.
• Zu agreed to separate from the Secondary Universe's consciousness and let the central black hole absorb his energy, while refusing to take over from the Black Hole Consciousness.
• Zu enveloped the Expeller in a ball of light and flew toward the central black hole, leaving only a nearly transparent shadow behind.

Zu replenished the Milky Way’s black hole with the Secondary Universe’s Consciousness Field energy, reviving the Demon Scorpion Civilization, but the energy’s return to the Galactic Consciousness triggered the Secondary Universe’s merger with the greater universe. The Milky Way was torn apart, and Hu Yu realized their lost time advantage would make fighting the Fish Horse Star Civilization harder, though the increased distance might buy them several hundred years.

• Zu argued with Yan Xue and Chen Xue about why he had helped the Demon Scorpion Civilization and said he wanted to live as a true member of the Snow Tribe.
• The black hole released the Secondary Universe’s Consciousness Field energy into the minds of the Demon Scorpion people, who awoke, and their leader thanked Zu.
• Daozi said the Galactic Consciousness remained too weak to restrain the Fish Horse Star Civilization and discussed unexplained matter and a brief, devastating war in NGC 3109.
• Daozi told the others to have Academician Zeng investigate the increased matter in the Eagle Nebula, then the Milky Way suddenly split as space shifted.
• Daozi explained that the Secondary Universe was merging into the greater universe because its Consciousness Field had dissipated, ending its time advantage and tearing apart the Milky Way.
• Hu Yu lamented their reduced ability to build Expellers, but Zu noted that the disruption had also increased the distance from the Fish Horse Star Civilization and might give them several hundred years.

After the Secondary Universe merged with the greater universe, Hu Yu coordinated humanity’s response and sent Academician Zeng and Academician Gao Zhengyang to investigate the Eagle Nebula. Their research revealed that Basic Space and the void had swapped places in parts of the region.

• The stars of the Milky Way appeared in the Secondary Universe, and Hu Yu contacted Academician Zeng and warned people not to panic as the universes merged and their times synchronized.
• Hu Yu returned to humanity’s base, where he briefed the scientists and ordered Academician Zeng and Academician Gao Zhengyang to investigate the unexplained increase in matter in the Eagle Nebula.
• Hu Yu and Academician Zeng discussed humanity’s scientific progress and plans to protect people aboard Expellers, while offering other civilizations warship technology and Fifth Reversed State hulls.
• Academician Zeng and Academician Gao Zhengyang traveled to the Eagle Nebula, where Li Zhixiong’s Conqueror Fleets stood guard as the scientists examined its matter and Basic Space.
• Academician Zeng and Academician Gao Zhengyang discovered that Basic Space and the void had swapped places in some parts of the Eagle Nebula.

Academician Zeng and Academician Gao Zhengyang investigated reversed regions of Basic Space and the Void in the Eagle Nebula, considering how they might relate to its Nebula Consciousness Entity and unexplained increase in matter. They continued their survey while waiting for Old Xiao, and the chapter explained the immense difficulty of advancing frontier technology at humanity’s current level.

• Academician Zeng and Academician Gao Zhengyang found places in the Eagle Nebula where the proportions of Basic Space and the Void were reversed and began taking samples.
• Academician Zeng suggested that the Void might form where space from another dimension intersected with their own, but Gao Zhengyang questioned whether matter from another space could explain the increase.
• Academician Gao Zhengyang and Academician Zeng discussed the Nebula Consciousness Entity and decided to focus on spatial research until Old Xiao returned from visiting the Tree Race with Zheng Kaiping.
• The two academicians continued their survey with a research team of fewer than five hundred people, despite the Eagle Nebula’s vast size.
• The chapter described how technological breakthroughs became increasingly difficult at higher civilization levels and noted that humanity’s military technology had reached the middle Galaxy-Level stage, while other fields remained at the Large Star Region stage.

Hu Yu rescued the Yun San Civilization from the Lost Zone and arranged for its survivors to join the Far Watcher Civilization, offering them technology and a place in the Star Ring Alliance. The Far Watchers agreed to accept the survivors and proposed transplanting their own brains into the bodies of Yun San beings who needed to be executed.

• Chen Xue built Zu a black rabbit body, and Zu became a strict chieftain among the Snow Tribe.
• Hu Yu took Yan Xue and the Slaughterer fleet to the Lost Zone, where they found the Yun San survivors starving and without order.
• The Slaughterers disabled and transported the Yun San warships to the galactic center.
• Hu Yu offered the Far Watcher leader care of the Yun San survivors, Superintelligent Robot technology, and membership in the Star Ring Alliance.
• Hu Yu proposed modifying the Yun San survivors’ memories so they could join the Far Watcher Civilization, and the leader accepted.
• The Far Watcher leader suggested transplanting Far Watcher brains into Yun San bodies slated for execution to ease their integration.

Hu Yu coordinated the aftermath of the Yun San Civilization’s betrayal while the galaxy’s civilizations prepared to face the Fish Horse Star Civilization’s Super Fortress. As reinforcements approached, the Far Watchers reported that they had intercepted a Yun San spaceship carrying more than ten thousand scientists.

• Hu Yu handed the Yun San Civilization’s people over to the Far Watcher Civilization and left their memory changes and leader’s fate to its scientists, while humanity sent social work teams to help.
• Humanity’s people entered the modified Expeller, which contained the Solar System in folded space, as the galaxy’s civilizations rebuilt their fleets and worked to solve the Super Fortress’s space maze.
• Wen Zhonghua told Hu Yu that the Firefly and Aurora Civilizations had each sent one hundred quadrillion battleships, while three Great Star Region Intermediate Civilizations had contributed another three hundred quadrillion.
• Hu Yu told Wen Zhonghua that the Yun San traitor had been dealt with, the Eagle Nebula’s previous Main Consciousness had been banished, and the Secondary Universe was gone.
• The leader of the Far Watchers reported that his civilization had intercepted a Yun San spaceship carrying more than ten thousand scientists, and Hu Yu ordered him to keep it secured until battleships arrived.