Brother, just how powerful is our family?

The year 4921 of the Yellow Emperor's reign.

In the first spring after the extermination of the Qiong Beasts, the territory of the Yanhuang civilization quietly expanded by a large area on the star map.

The Executive Yuan issued a concise and unadorned announcement: "The Orion Arm, effective immediately, is an inherent territory of the Yanhuang Civilization. No unauthorized civilization or individual may conduct colonization, development, or military activities within this area."

The announcement was very short, so short that it was somewhat domineering.

But no one questioned it, no civilization protested, because there was no civilization on the Orion Arm that could rival the Yanhuang civilization.

The hundreds of millions of years of cleaning by the Qiong Beasts have kept the intelligent civilization on this spiral arm in its nascent stage.

Occasionally, a few that developed to the interstellar stage were also eradicated during the periodic cleanup by the Qilin.

The rest were either primitive tribes that had just learned to use fire, or early civilizations that had not yet invented writing.

They do not have the concept of "territory" nor the ability to "protest".

Therefore, the statement from the Yanhuang civilization was not a declaration, but a notification; not a negotiation, but an announcement.

The Orion Arm is a part of the Yanhuang civilization.

From the inner to the outer sides of the spiral arms, from the direction of the galactic center to the edge, and from a vast star field thousands to tens of thousands of light-years away from the solar system, all of these areas were incorporated into the territory of the Yanhuang civilization.

The descendants of Yan and Huang have lived in the solar system for thousands of years and have been active within a hundred light-years of the surrounding area for hundreds of years. Now, they are going to go to even more distant places.

Those star systems that no one has ever set foot in, those stars that only exist in telescopes, those life-bearing planets that have shone in the darkness for billions of years—from today onwards, they have a master.

When news of the expansion spread, the entire Yanhuang civilization was in an uproar.

It wasn't the kind of frenzy that came with exterminating the Kujira Beasts, but a calmer, more rational, and more enduring passion.

Because expansion is not something that can be done in a day or two, nor can it be accomplished in a single battle.

Expansion requires decades, centuries, or even millennia of sustained effort.

Countless people need to leave their homes and travel to those distant, unfamiliar, and undeveloped planets.

It requires countless people to build cities on barren land, construct ports in the cold space, and cultivate farmland in unfamiliar ecosystems.

But the descendants of Yan and Huang are not afraid. The instinct for expansion flows in their blood, and the desire to conquer new territories is etched in their genes.

From the Qin Dynasty to the Han Dynasty, from the Tang Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, the descendants of Yan and Huang have never stopped their journey.

The Earth is too small to contain their ambitions. The solar system is too small to contain their dreams.

Now, the entire Orion Arm lies before us, filled with billions of stars, countless life-bearing planets, and inexhaustible resources.

This is a stage that our ancestors never dared to dream of.

The Orion Arm on the star map is an arc-shaped structure that is about 10,000 light-years long and 1,000 light-years wide.

The solar system is located inside the spiral arm, approximately several thousand light-years from the center line of the spiral arm.

Starting from the solar system, towards the inner side of the spiral arms, there are dense clusters of stars; towards the outer side of the spiral arms, there are relatively sparse but equally vast star fields; towards the galactic center, there is an even denser ocean of stars.

The number of stars in the entire Orion Arm is in the hundreds of millions.

Not hundreds of millions, not billions, but tens of billions.

There are billions of stars, each of which may have planets, and each planet may have life.

Even if only one percent of stars have life, that's still hundreds of millions of planets.

Hundreds of millions of life-bearing planets.

This number makes every Chinese person dizzy.

"Our population is two hundred billion. Two hundred billion sounds like a lot. But when averaged out to each habitable planet, that's only two thousand people," Qin Wenyuan said at an expansion meeting. "Two thousand people aren't even enough to form a single village. So, don't think about achieving it all at once. Expansion takes time, patience, and the efforts of several generations."

His suggestion was "node-based expansion".

First, establish nodal galaxies at key locations in the Orion Arm, like casting a net, and then slowly gather them together.

Each node galaxy is a miniature civilization center, possessing a complete industrial system, scientific research system, and defense system.

Using nodal star systems as springboards, they radiate outwards to the surrounding star regions, gradually developing those secondary planets.

This strategy is exactly the same as the previous expansion within a hundred light-years.

However, this time the scale is larger, more nodes are needed, and more resources are invested.

But the Yanhuang civilization was already prepared.

The first step in the expansion was reconnaissance. Hundreds of exploration ships were dispatched to various directions of the Orion Arm.

Their mission is to find suitable nodal galaxies—galaxies with life-bearing planets, abundant resources, and strategically important locations.

Each exploration spacecraft is equipped with state-of-the-art sensors and warp drives, enabling it to traverse distances of hundreds of light-years in a short time.

Like a swarm of diligent bees, they shuttle through the vast starry sky, collecting data from every star and every planet.

The first reconnaissance reports came back several months later. The results were encouraging.

"A planet with life has been discovered 800 light-years from our solar system. Its atmosphere is suitable for human respiration, its gravity is slightly lower than Earth's, and its surface temperature is suitable. It has high vegetation cover and a rich variety of animals. No signs of intelligent life are observed."

"A binary star system has been discovered 1,200 light-years from our solar system. Two habitable planets orbit two separate stars. One planet has intelligent life and a technology level equivalent to Earth's Iron Age. The other planet has no intelligent life and a primitive ecosystem."

"Two thousand light-years from our solar system, a star system with three habitable planets has been discovered. It is extremely rich in resources, especially rare metals. Two of the planets have intelligent life, with technological levels at the Bronze Age and the Age of Cold Weapons, respectively. The third planet has no intelligent life, but its conditions are excellent, making it suitable for large-scale colonization."

Each report is like a magnet, attracting the attention of the Chinese people.

Those planets, those worlds, those unexplored lands, are waiting for their new owners.

The second step in expansion was immigration. The Yanhuang civilization encouraged every citizen to participate in the expansion, but never forced anyone to leave their homeland.

For citizens willing to travel to the new planet, the Yanhuang civilization offers generous benefits, including free transportation, free housing, free medical care, free genetic optimization, and priority development rights on the new planet.

There are additional subsidies and rewards for families with multiple children.

As soon as the policy was announced, applicants flocked to the site. It wasn't because they were greedy for the benefits, but because they had a burning passion within them.

That fire of exploring the unknown and expanding territory burns in the hearts of every Chinese descendant.

They wanted to be among the first to set foot on the new planet, to leave their footprints on those unfamiliar lands, and to build a new home with their own hands.

"I want to go," a young engineer said to his wife. "Deep in the Orion Arm, there's a planet with an atmosphere almost identical to Earth's. I want to build a city there."

"I'll go with you," his wife said.

"Where are the children?"

"Take it with you. There will be a school there."

They did not hesitate. Because they knew that this was not leaving their homes, but expanding their territory.

Their ancestors migrated from the Yellow River basin to the Yangtze River basin, from the Central Plains to the frontier, and from the frontier to overseas.

Now, it's their turn.

From the solar system to the depths of Orion, from hundreds of light-years to thousands of light-years.

This is their mission, and this is their glory.

The third step in expansion is construction. Every selected life-bearing planet must undergo a construction process from scratch.

The exploration spacecraft arrived first and confirmed it was safe.

Then, the engineering fleet arrived and began constructing infrastructure—spaceports, energy stations, communication towers, and residential areas.

Then, the immigrant ship arrived, and people, with their luggage, their children, and their hopes, set foot on that unfamiliar land.