Chapter Summaries

Humanity transformed Planet Three by stripping Planet Six of its atmosphere and water, then using the materials to prepare a second Earth. After the planet’s initial ecological work was completed, the fleet waited for life to develop while Hu Yu continued his espionage mission and industry expanded across the other planets.

• The Stealth Killers moved Planet Six near JD3 Star, where stellar wind stripped away its atmosphere and water for Planet Three to collect.
• After a week, Planet Three had gathered seventy percent of Planet Six’s atmosphere and water, and the Stealth Killers placed it in an Earth-like orbit.
• Hu Yu ordered nuclear bombs dropped on Planet Three to create craters that would become lakes, and household waste was added to help establish microorganisms.
• Within two months, the fleet completed Planet Three’s initial transformation and scattered plant seeds to produce oxygen over the coming years.
• Hu Yu ventured into Wind Star Civilization territory for a second espionage mission, while people began working on Planet Three with oxygen cylinders.
• After twenty years, plants covered Planet Three’s land and freshwater life had begun to reproduce, while machines, factories, and workers developed the other planets.

Humanity planned to use a vast robot army and a growing population to expand its industrial power while avoiding a direct assault on the Wind Star Civilization. Hu Yu continued a covert strategy to defeat Wind Star with minimal force, using an old fleet merchant to impersonate Feng Jun inside a Wind Star shipyard.

• Academician Xiao argued that humanity could imitate biological signals but could not create consciousness, and that even powerful computers remained machines without self-awareness.
• Humanity planned to use centrally controlled robots for simple work and human-operated holographic robots for complex tasks, allowing construction across distant star systems.
• Hu Yu expected Planet Three to become habitable soon and hoped that settling there would encourage population growth and expand the fleet’s robot workforce.
• Hu Yu rejected building 30 billion Stealth Killers for a direct attack and continued pursuing a covert plan to defeat Wind Star with minimal military force.
• An old merchant from the fleet took Feng Jun’s place at a Wind Star shipyard, using their shared unscrupulous business methods to maintain the deception.

Hu Yu used Feng Jun’s clone and black-market connections to expand his influence in Wind Star Civilization, secretly diverting a shipment of Planet 97 creatures to officials. He then continued transporting captive species, including the tree people of Planet 33, whose easy cooperation left him wondering what hardships they still had to endure.

• Hu Yu learned that Feng Jun’s black-market network supplied Planet 97 creatures to Wind Star officials and planned to use the clone’s influence to create turmoil during a future attack.
• Hu Yu secretly diverted a spacecraft carrying a hundred Planet 97 creatures to Feng Jun’s dock, then tasked the old merchant with delivering them to Wind Star’s upper echelons.
• Hu Yu promised the old merchant a Gold Ship Medal if he completed the delivery without being caught.
• Hu Yu watched the fleet transport the tree people from Planet 33, learning that they had lived for billions of years without developing technology.
• The tree people eagerly pulled their roots from the soil and ran toward the warships, making their loading easier than that of other species.

Hu Yu and Academician Zeng considered how humanity could defeat the Wind Star Civilization, including a dangerous plan involving a Cepheid variable, while Hu Yu organized a vast warship and fighter-building program. The chapter left humanity preparing for a quick strike as its settlements on Planet Three continued to develop.

• Hu Yu sent the treants’ warship into deep space, where the cold entering through holes in its hull froze them solid, and handed control of Si Luo to another operator.
• Academician Zeng concluded that the Wind Star Civilization’s powerful fleet could not be defeated by a frontal assault with humanity’s current capabilities.
• Academician Zeng considered propelling a Cepheid variable into Wind Star territory, but the plan risked harming other civilizations and attracting the attention of advanced powers.
• Hu Yu resolved to seek a quick victory because Wind Star’s enormous logistical resources would make a prolonged war unwinnable.
• Hu Yu approved a plan to build at least fifty million Wind Masters over five hundred years, using billions of workers and robots.
• Planet Three’s homes spread across a lush landscape after decades of modifications made the planet suitable for ordinary people to live on.

Over two hundred years on JD3, the fleet built a stable home on Earth Two, expanded its population and technology, and produced ten million Wind Master warships. Hu Yu then heard an unfamiliar voice calling Si Luo from the Wind Star fleet four thousand light-years away.

• The fleet offered housing, discounts, and spaceships to encourage families to have children, and JD3's population grew to over eight billion.
• The fleet expanded JD3 from six planets to twenty-three and developed its scientific workforce and nonmilitary technologies.
• Wen Zhonghua completed the acquisition of seventeen planets, while the fleet built ten million Wind Master warships with speeds matching or exceeding those of the Wind Star Civilization.
• Hu Yu controlled Si Luo's clone beyond the Wind Star Civilization's defenses when an unfamiliar voice called Si Luo from the distant Wind Star fleet.

Hu Yu discovered that a towering tree man had hidden aboard the Wind Star fleet and brought it onto the Wind Master. The tree man explained how it had detected the human infiltration and revealed that every tree man on Planet No. 33 was a branch controlled by its main consciousness.

• Hu Yu searched the warship after hearing a mysterious voice, then concluded with Academician Xiao's help that it came from one of the beings aboard.
• Hu Yu dumped the frozen beings from the fleet onto Insect Star and watched as a tree man emerged from the mound of bodies.
• Hu Yu let the tree man aboard the Wind Master despite a subordinate's concern.
• The tree man explained that it had sensed the human puppets' brain waves, boarded the warship to escape Planet No. 33, and used its remaining energy to contact Hu Yu.
• The tree man revealed that all tree men on Planet No. 33 were branches controlled by its single main consciousness.

Hu Yu learned about Ninety-Seven’s origins, abilities, and long exile from the Treefolk homeworld. The revelation that the Treefolk elders hid their home system in folded space left Hu Yu and Planet Three’s scientists eager to learn how it was done.

• Ninety-Seven explained that Treefolk consciousness came from root-system division, while seeds produced obedient, mindless workers.
• Ninety-Seven told Hu Yu he was a ninety-seventh-generation prince who had left his homeworld after a disagreement and been captured by the Wind Star People.
• Ninety-Seven described how ancient Treefolk gathered energy to bend space and travel between stars, and how their immense bodies limited their mobility.
• Hu Yu asked Ninety-Seven why he had not returned home, and Ninety-Seven said he could not locate the hidden Treefolk system.
• Ninety-Seven revealed that billion-year-old elders folded the space around the home system and continually shifted its position, exciting Academician Zeng and the scientists on Planet Three.

Hu Yu questioned Ninety-Seven about Wind Star Civilization, its military, and the captive civilizations it exploited, then brought him to Planet Three. Ninety-Seven warned that the fleet might be too weak to defeat Wind Star and that Wind Star spies were embedded among other civilizations.

• Ninety-Seven explained that he could not reveal how the Treefolk folded space because the technology was controlled by their elders.
• Ninety-Seven told Hu Yu that Wind Star had about 350 million warships, used captives to feed the Insect Race, and possessed only a hundred giant warships whose purpose he did not know.
• Ninety-Seven offered to share his theoretical knowledge with the fleet, and the Wind Master reached the JD3 Planetary System after traveling for just over ten days.
• Hu Yu settled Ninety-Seven on Planet Three and said he would remain there until the fleet attacked Wind Star Civilization.
• Ninety-Seven cautioned that Hu Yu’s forces would need at least a billion warships for a fifty-percent chance of victory, and warned that Wind Star had planted disguised spies among other civilizations.

Ninety-Seven cared for Earth’s children but encouraged them to play pranks and steal, angering the adults. Hu Yu corrected him and offered him responsibility for a new school, while Ninety-Seven chose to stay and help train the children.

• Ninety-Seven cared for Earth’s children and became their favorite caretaker, but led them into theft and pranks against adults.
• The adults protested and tried to drive Ninety-Seven away, but he refused to leave and continued his mischief.
• The Planetary Administration Council reported the problem to Hu Yu because it could not compel the alien visitor to change.
• Hu Yu explained how Ninety-Seven’s games could teach children bad habits and burden the adults, and Ninety-Seven agreed to stop.
• Hu Yu offered Ninety-Seven a school to run with teachers reviewing his plans, and Ninety-Seven eagerly accepted.
• Ninety-Seven said he felt deeply attached to human children and would stay until Hu Yu conquered the Wind Star Civilization.

Three hundred years after arriving in the JD3 Planetary System, Hu Yu oversaw a growing fleet and developed armor-piercing rounds for attacking the Wind Star Civilization’s defenses. Academician Zeng and Liu Bo could not find a way to move a Cepheid variable, so Hu Yu invited them to travel with him in search of inspiration.

• The fleet’s population reached ten billion, and more than twenty million Wind Masters had been built.
• Hu Yu equipped the fleet to mass-produce Chong Element armor-piercing rounds for clearing Wind Star’s defensive perimeter.
• Academician Zeng and Liu Bo told Hu Yu that three hundred years of research had failed to find a way to propel the Cepheid variable.
• Hu Yu thanked the physicists and invited Academician Zeng and the others to travel with him, recalling their earlier journey around the Solar System.

Hu Yu, Academician Zeng, and Academician Liu looked back on humanity’s escape from the Insect Race and discussed the challenges of reaching Small Star Sector Civilization. They left the conversation focused on the limits of curvature navigation and the need for broader technological breakthroughs.

• Hu Yu took Academician Zeng and Academician Liu in a spacecraft to observe the JD3 Planetary System from above its ecliptic plane.
• Academician Zeng recounted how the Insect Race’s invasion forced humanity to build 250 Polaris spacecraft and how a journey with the general inspired a breakthrough in curvature navigation.
• Hu Yu vowed to find Earth or create an identical one and rebuild the Solar System.
• Academician Zeng worried that humanity lacked a reliable way to defeat the Wind Star Civilization and said he hoped to obtain its complete technology tree.
• Academician Zeng argued that Small Star Sector Civilization would require surpassing the speed limit of curvature navigation and developing new weapons beyond improved antimatter and lasers.

Academician Liu proposed collecting neutron-degenerate matter from a Cepheid variable by crashing a star into it, and the fleet carried out the plan. Five specially built ships captured the scattered matter within seconds, leaving humanity with the material it needed for its next step.

• Academician Liu proposed moving a nearby star into the Cepheid variable and using small ships to capture the ejected neutron-degenerate matter before it decayed.
• The Wind Masters moved a yellow dwarf to within ten thousand kilometers of the Cepheid variable and withdrew.
• The yellow dwarf spiraled into the Cepheid variable, then shattered in a massive explosion that scattered fragments and degenerate matter.
• Five chong-element-hulled ships warped through the blast and reached positions identified by Academician Zeng and Academician Liu’s simulations.
• The five ships detected the Cepheid variable matter, enveloped it, and used directional force fields and magnetic fields to keep it compressed.

Hu Yu heard how Old Li had used Feng Jun to build a powerful business network on Wind Star and infiltrate the civilization’s government. Feng Jun bribed the industry minister to secure a deputy commerce minister position and began exploiting the minister’s resentment toward the leader.

• Hu Yu praised Old Li’s success in taking control of much of Wind Star’s entertainment and food industries, but ordered him to focus on intelligence and avoid stirring up trouble.
• Old Li told Hu Yu that he had tested addictive Earth-era substances on Wind Star People, and Hu Yu instructed him not to use them.
• Feng Jun met the industry minister in a secret chamber beneath a dockyard and offered him two meatballs and fifty billion contribution points.
• The industry minister said he had spoken to the head of state and that Feng Jun had a good chance of becoming deputy commerce minister.
• Feng Jun drew out the industry minister’s resentment toward the leader and offered to help him gain more power.

Old Li rose to power on Wind Star and used addictive Silo Liquor and political division to weaken the Wind Star Civilization as Hu Yu prepared a fleet for war. The fleet neared completion, and Hu Yu began moving supplies and equipment to two planets ahead of the coming conflict.

• Old Li reported the minister of industry's ambitions to Hu Yu, who told him to wait for a suitable chance to encourage a coup.
• Ninety-Seven ran a school for mischievous children, whose students later proved exceptionally capable and made him one of Planet Three's most sought-after people.
• Old Li became vice minister of commerce in year 450 and supplied the fleet with secret intelligence about Wind Star.
• Old Li spread cheap Silo Liquor containing addictive molecules and used public opinion to silence people who warned against it.
• Hu Yu's fleet of fifty million warships neared completion, equipped with antimatter bombs, gravity bombs, lasers, and armor-piercing rounds.
• Hu Yu began transferring supplies and equipment to Earth Two and a resource planet that could supply minerals for another fleet.

Hu Yu learned that the Wind Star Civilization might be preparing a revenge expedition and accelerated humanity’s preparations for war and evacuation. He left ten million warships to protect Earth Two while planning to commit the rest to battle, then returned home to reunite with Xiao Xiao and Hu Yunhang.

• Old Li told Hu Yu that the Wind Star leader had ordered 130 billion tons of food and that an old document described the Wind Star Civilization’s defeat twenty thousand years earlier, suggesting it was preparing for revenge.
• Hu Yu ordered his staff to revise the battle plan, speed up the transfer of supplies, and prepare to destroy or abandon what could not be moved within a year.
• Hu Yu assigned ten million Stealth Killers to protect Earth Two and committed the remaining forty million warships to the battle.
• Hu Yu returned home and reunited with Xiao Xiao and Hu Yunhang, while Xiao Xiao complained that he rarely came home despite being able to return quickly.

Hu Yu told Hu Yunhang that he would lead a detachment to find a civilization that might join them against the Wind Star Civilization. Hu Yunhang hid the real mission from Xiao Xiao, and the chapter ended when Uncle Zhonghua arrived at their door.

• Xiao Xiao scolded Hu Yu and Hu Yunhang, then calmed down as they ate dinner.
• Hu Yu explained that Hu Yunhang would leave in ten days with ten thousand Wind Master warships to search for a distant civilization and seek its help against the Wind Star Civilization.
• Hu Yunhang questioned the mission’s risks, and Hu Yu explained why he had chosen him and instructed him to prioritize the mission while away from the fleet.
• Hu Yunhang told Xiao Xiao that he was going to Tau Ceti to find its third planet and retrieve something important, concealing the real purpose of his trip.
• Hu Yunhang opened the door after a knock and found Uncle Zhonghua there.

Hu and Zhonghua prepared to launch their fleet against the Wind Star Civilization despite uncertain odds, while Feng Jun urged Wind Star’s ministers to seize power during the coming war. The chapter left the ministers considering his proposal and the danger posed by the head of state.

• Hu told Zhonghua that the fleet had to fight soon because the Wind Star Civilization was growing stronger and other threats were emerging.
• Hu ordered Zhonghua to oversee the transfer of supplies and ensure the fleet and Earth Two departed on schedule.
• Feng Jun met with the ministers of industry and military and learned that Wind Star planned to attack the S378 Civilization in three years.
• Feng Jun urged the ministers to use the fleet’s absence to take power, reminding them that the head of state had purged officials who opposed him.

Old Li’s plot to overthrow Wind Star’s head of state took shape, while Hu Yu prepared the fleet for war and the civilians rushed to move supplies onto the resource planet. The chapter left the coup awaiting the fleet’s attack and the evacuation still underway.

• Lord Feng persuaded the industry minister and military minister to seize power by spreading addictive Silo Liquor and controlling the materials needed to counter its effects.
• The ministers agreed to support Lord Feng, planned to control the patriarchs and head of state’s guards, and chose to act when the fleet attacked Wind Star.
• Old Li reported the coup plan to Hu Yu, who was pleased it could destabilize Wind Star but learned Old Li had failed to obtain its protected technology secrets.
• Wen Zhonghua prioritized moving precision equipment and other vital supplies to the resource planet, leaving bulky factories behind.
• Billions of civilians used more than 200 million small spaceships to help transport supplies, sacrificing their ships’ comfort and upkeep to carry more.

Hu Yu’s Wind Master fleet reached Wind Star territory while the Wind Star fleet departed on an expedition against S378, and Hu Yu’s allies prepared to exploit the resulting absence. Wind Star forces intercepted the approaching human fleet, but their evasive maneuvers let its armor-piercing rounds penetrate the defensive perimeter.

• The Wind Masters and modified Stealth Killers traveled toward Wind Star after destroying the twenty-one planets left behind, while Hu Yu kept his five thousand compromised Wind Star warships ready inside the civilization.
• Feng Jun used addictive Silo Liquor to fuel celebrations after two hundred million Wind Star warships departed for S378, while Old Li repeatedly delayed the minister of industry’s proposed rebellion.
• Hu Yu’s fleet evaded Wind Star’s outer surveillance until reconnaissance satellites spotted it five light-years from the civilization, prompting the head of state to dispatch one hundred million warships through four combat passages.
• The Wind Star fleet met the Wind Masters outside the defensive perimeter, and its warships’ evasive maneuvers allowed tens of billions of armor-piercing rounds to break through the perimeter.

The Wind Masters fought to hold off the Wind Star fleet while armor-piercing rounds cleared a passage into Wind Star territory, and Hu Yu waited for Hu Yunhang to find the S378 Civilization. As the Wind Star fleet moved to intercept the rounds, Feng Jun and the minister of industry prepared to launch a rebellion inside the head of state's building.

• Armor-piercing rounds destroyed space-based turrets and interstellar mines as they began clearing a passage through Wind Star's defenses.
• Hu Yu learned that Hu Yunhang had spent over two months near his destination without finding the S378 Civilization.
• Old Li reported that ten million Wind Star warships had split off to intercept the incoming rounds.
• Hu Yu ordered Old Li to prepare to launch the rebellion inside Wind Star territory.
• Feng Jun showed the minister of industry a concealed pneumatic gun made from bone and explained how they could use it to reach the head of state.