Chapter Summaries

Kang De and Iron Son traded barbs while discussing Iron Son’s promise to help Kang De lose an upcoming fight, and Iron Son secretly coached A Xing on how to get closer to Kang De. Meanwhile, Santos and Lily examined the dragon corpses and agreed Dragon Defense should avoid fighting Kang De until it understood his methods; Lily then hinted she would try to coax those secrets from him.

• Kang De teased Iron Son about wanting a wife, and Iron Son challenged him to prove he could create another mechanical life-form before the coming fight.
• Kang De agreed to hear Iron Son’s request after they threw the fight, while Iron Son said it would decide what to ask soon.
• After Kang De left, Iron Son coached A Xing to pursue him with a carefully planned outfit and rehearsed lines, though A Xing remained uneasy.
• Santos and Lily examined the dragon remains and concluded that fire and a fast blade had killed the dragons, but they lacked enough evidence to identify Kang De’s methods.
• Santos decided Dragon Defense should avoid fighting Kang De and instead restore its reputation and cautiously learn his secrets.
• Lily told Santos she would coax Kang De for information and asked what she should use to do it.

Kang De learned why the Dragon Emperor had led an attack on Venom Nest, the wyverns’ competing defense company, while Dragon Island negotiated with Goth. At lunch, Lily’s attempt to retrieve her notebook caused a confrontation, and the chapter ended with Tina warning Kang De not to trust the dragons too much.

• Santos explained that Venom Nest’s low-cost wyvern mercenaries had taken market share from Dragon Defense, prompting the Dragon Emperor to attack them and negotiate with Goth.
• Kang De joked about the Dragon Emperor being “high and hard,” and Lily teased him while writing in her Dragon Language notebook.
• Kang De discovered that he could recognize some Dragon Language words, causing Lily to panic and snatch back her notebook; A Xing struck her arm and Hilmeria pointed a sword at her.
• Santos condemned Lily’s actions and promised Dragon Island would explain them, while Lily apologized and rushed out with her notebook.
• After the luncheon ended, Kang De’s companions debated whether Lily had been testing him, and Tina told him not to trust the dragons too much.

Santos reported that Dragon Island had approved Kang De’s proposed arrangement, then left him to coordinate the details with Goth. Kang De resumed his literacy lesson with Tina, whose playful refusal to be photographed turned serious when he mentioned showing her to his father, and she admitted she wanted Kang De’s family’s blessing.

• Santos told Kang De that the Dragon Emperor and the board had agreed to the plan and conveyed the Dragon Emperor’s apology.
• Kang De dismissed Santos and directed him to discuss the arrangements with Goth’s officials.
• After Santos left, Kang De called Tina out to continue his literacy lessons in a professional outfit.
• Tina stopped Kang De from photographing her, saying she wanted him to come see her rather than look at a picture.
• When Kang De said he wanted to show the picture to his father, Tina panicked and began planning how to present herself to his family.
• Kang De embraced Tina, and she told him she wanted his family’s blessing and approval.

Kang De finished a private lesson with Tina, who stopped their intimacy but left him a pair of stockings as a gift. Later, Lily approached A Xing to apologize to Kang De and offered to teach her how to compete with Tina for his affection.

• Tina ended the lesson with Kang De, kissed him as a reward, and left while the maids teased them.
• Kang De found the stockings Tina had left behind and decided to keep them as her gift.
• Kang De returned to the White Mist World to wash before going to find A Xing for dinner.
• Lily found A Xing watching a video and learned that she had been watching PAW Patrol.
• Lily asked A Xing to accompany her to apologize to Kang De and offered to teach her how to beat Princess Tina.

A Xing and Lily clashed over Lily’s request to see Kang De, then A Xing agreed to take her after making her wear one of Horus’s strange outfits. As Lily prepared to meet Kang De, a spreading shadow continued roaming Maple Leaf Palace after waiting for three days.

• A Xing refused to take Lily to Kang De, and Lily followed her while avoiding a fight by offering to be beaten instead.
• Lily suggested killing Princess Tina, prompting A Xing to turn away before using Kang De’s teaching to devise a condition for helping Lily.
• A Xing told Lily about her happiness with Kang De, and Lily grew more curious about him until A Xing revealed that Kang De thought Lily was a male dragon.
• A Xing led Lily to her room and made her put on a strange outfit from a bag beneath her bed.
• Kang De pondered whether to act, while a spreading shadow roamed Maple Leaf Palace.

Shadow infiltrated Maple Leaf Palace on a mission involving Kang De, while Lily and A Xing argued over Lily’s maid outfit and her plans to see him. Kang De was interrupted as he reached for Tina’s gift, then spotted a strange shadow approaching his room.

• Shadow had infiltrated Maple Leaf Palace three days earlier to capture Princess Tina and take something from Teldrassil’s treasury, but his mission changed after Kang De saved Danfeng Lucerne.
• Shadow hid inside the palace until he received the chance to move toward Kang De’s room, carrying a dragon blood potion and a Dragon Vein Awakening scroll.
• Lily wore A Xing’s maid outfit and teased her while insisting she should visit Kang De to reveal her gender and apologize.
• A Xing agreed to answer Lily’s questions after Lily threatened to call for Kang De, and Lily began questioning her.
• Kang De tried to reach for Tina’s gift but stopped when he heard someone calling him, then used Phoenix Vision and saw two powerful figures in A Xing’s room and a shadow moving toward him.

Kang De mistook an intruder for a threat and opened fire, summoning A Xing and setting off a chaotic confrontation in Maple Leaf Palace. As Sword Saint Cascading Snow fought the attacker, the dragon girl Lily hid under Kang De’s covers, while the attacker powered up and targeted Horus.

• Kang De spotted a shadowy intruder, returned from the White Mist Space, and fired an M134 Minigun out the window while calling for Horus.
• A Xing rushed to protect Kang De, and he discovered Lily wearing Formidable’s clothes; Lily blocked the dragon breath that came through the window before hiding under Kang De’s covers.
• Sword Saint Cascading Snow arrived and fought the intruder, who revealed dragon scales and wings and tried to escape into the air.
• Horus and Maple Leaf Palace’s defenders attacked the flying intruder, who crushed a vial of dragon blood potion and gained a surge of power.
• The empowered intruder plunged toward Horus, following his master’s orders.

Shadow's suicidal attack gravely damaged Horus, forcing Kang De to take him to the White Mist World for safety. Horus survived but could not fight while he assessed the damage, and Kang De returned to the other world to deal with the aftermath.

• The dragon girl realized Shadow was targeting Kang De's alchemical weapon, but Kang De escaped through a spatial portal as the attack began.
• Horus threw out the spatial anchor and shielded himself while A Xing, Sword Saint Cascading Snow, and the dragon girl struck Shadow's descending attack.
• Shadow's blow shattered Horus's shield and badly damaged his body, but Horus's Spark core survived behind dragon-patterned armor.
• Kang De took Horus to the White Mist World, where the mist replenished his energy but did not repair his damaged body.
• Horus told Kang De that repairing him would take time, and Kang De promised they would find a way to rebuild him with better materials.
• After Kang De returned to the other world, Horus admitted he had been secretly recording his father and planned to pretend he had lost his memory if Kang De asked about it.

After the attack on Maple Leaf Palace, Kang De returned unharmed while Horus remained gravely injured, and the Goth leaders confronted Santos over the assassin’s dragon-related weapons. Kang De allowed Dragon Island Defense to examine the assassin’s remains and kept the agreement with the dragons in place, leaving the conspiracy unresolved.

• Kang De returned to the room, where A Xing, the Sword Saint Cascading Snow, and Lily were waiting, and he had Lily put on his jacket so the gathered officials could enter.
• Tina embraced Kang De, then challenged Santos’s claim that the attack was a conspiracy, pointing to the dragon blood potion and dragon transformation scroll as evidence against Dragon Island.
• Santos asked for the attacker’s ashes and residue so Dragon Island Defense could identify the potion’s source and trace the people behind the attack.
• Kang De agreed to give Santos part of the remains, reasoning that the dragons might be innocent but that political interests mattered more than innocence.
• Kang De told Santos that their agreement would proceed as planned and said he looked forward to Dragon Island Defense’s dragon rider battle group.

After an attacker crippled Kang De’s alchemical weapon, Santos and Lily discussed whether he still had a hidden advantage while Lily kept secret that she had seen him disappear. Kang De comforted Tina and learned the assassin’s shadow-form might connect the attack to Xide Kailamu, leaving Goth’s investigation focused on that name.

• Santos told Lily that Dragon Island would avoid pressuring Kang De because underestimating him had repeatedly brought disaster, and he had delayed their fight for half a month.
• Lily decided to investigate Kang De’s secret disappearance herself and kept what she had witnessed from Santos, planning to return his clothes first.
• Kang De returned to Tina, who clung to him in fear, while the Grand Duke explained that Goth was searching Maple Leaf Palace for traces of the attacker.
• Tina insisted Kang De stay with her, and the Grand Duke agreed despite his reservations.
• Kang De described the attacker as a mass of shadow that slithered along the ground, shocking the Grand Duke and the others.
• Hilmeria said they might know the attacker’s master, and the Grand Duke named Xide Kailamu.

After Kang De was attacked, suspicion fell on Prime Minister Xide and his Shadow Guard Cole, whose rare ability to become a shadow matched the attack. Grand Duke Reknos ordered Xide summoned, but Xide refused to come to Maple Leaf Palace, so Reknos decided to go to the prime minister’s residence himself.

• Stella explained that turning into a shadow was an extremely rare ability, and Tina identified Cole as the only person she knew who possessed it.
• Grand Duke Reknos insisted Xide and Cole were being framed, but Tina demanded that they be summoned and their residence watched by troops.
• Tina warned her father that Goth could not afford hesitation, and Kang De said that if Xide had ordered the attack, he would retaliate against him as the victim had been harmed.
• Reknos ordered the minister of arms to bring Xide and Cole to Maple Leaf Palace and deployed cavalry to Kailamu Avenue.
• The minister of arms reported that Xide refused to come, citing his wife’s illness, and said he had nothing to do with Kang De’s attack; Cole was not seen at the residence.
• Reknos learned that Landisidun had sealed the area around Xide’s residence and decided to go there himself.

Kang De and Tina discussed creating a loyal force under their direct command as they went with Grand Duke Reknos to confront Prime Minister Xide. Xide revealed that Cole had disappeared three days earlier, and the group left without answers when another attack began at Maple Leaf Palace.

• Tina urged Kang De to build a force that would obey them directly, and Kang De said he had discussed recruiting one with Hong San.
• Kang De, Tina, and their companions arrived at Kailam Manor, where Landisidun said he doubted Xide would attack Maple Leaf Palace.
• Kang De used Phoenix Vision to spot spies nearby and warned that whoever had framed Xide might have another move planned.
• Reknos asked Xide where Cole was, and Xide said Cole had gone missing three days earlier.
• Xide refused to share what he knew, and Kang De stopped Reknos from forcing the confrontation further.
• Magical lights flared over Maple Leaf Palace, and a knight commander announced that someone had broken in.

After Goth suffered a second attack, Grand Duke Reknos stripped Xide Kailamu of his authority and sent Kang De to prepare for another assault. Kang De returned to Maple Leaf Palace with Horus’s new combat armor and found Phoenix King Dairila there, claiming she had only punished the intruder she encountered.

• Grand Duke Reknos dismissed Xide Kailamu as prime minister and ordered Landisidun to place him under house arrest.
• Reknos sent A Xing to Maple Leaf Palace to guard against a third attack while Kang De returned to the White Mist World to prepare.
• Horus detached his head and transformed into an exoskeleton for Kang De, offering protection and combat support despite his injuries.
• Kang De returned through a spatial portal to Maple Leaf Palace and found Phoenix King Dairila waiting with A Xing.
• Dairila denied being responsible for the palace intruder and said she had only punished the person she happened to encounter.

Kang De negotiated with Dairila for the captive who attacked Maple Leaf Palace, agreeing not to marry Tina until Dairila resolved the elves’ internal troubles and the conflict between Goth and Twilight Moon. Dairila left him a mysterious ring, and Kang De turned his attention to the captive.

• Horus teased Kang De and Dairila during their awkward reunion, and Kang De asked Dairila to hand over her captive.
• Dairila questioned Kang De about his feelings for Tina and demanded that he not marry her while the current conflict remained unresolved.
• Dairila warned Kang De that unseen enemies might be behind the attack and urged him to distinguish friends from enemies.
• Kang De accepted Dairila’s condition, and she released the captive, bound by a secret technique of the Twilight Moon imperial family.
• Dairila took the food Kang De brought her and left him a sacred-marked ring with energy like the Crimson Scroll.
• Horus admitted Kang De had grown stronger, and Kang De went to inspect the captive.

Kang De captured an assassin who had infiltrated Maple Leaf Palace, then learned the intruder may have been targeting the Crimson Scroll beneath the palace. After Dairila gave Kang De a divine ring, he put it on and triggered a brilliant burst of light.

• Kang De frightened the captured assassin by invading his soul, then left him for the Goth People to interrogate.
• Kang De showed Dairila's ring to Hilmeria, who identified it as the Proof of Stellar Authority, a divine artifact of the Sun God.
• Reknos said the assassin had been found near the underground vault and explained that the area beneath the palace suppressed supernatural powers and held the Crimson Scroll.
• Reknos identified the ring's history and powers, and Kang De put it on to test whether he could use it.
• Kang De slipped the ring onto his ring finger, and it blazed with light that pierced the roof and illuminated the stars.

Kang De discovered that the Proof of Stellar Authority had chosen him and could not be removed, so Bishop Peila recognized it as Sura’s gift and promised to investigate its powers. Reknos confided his doubts about justice and Goth’s future, and Kang De vowed to help save the country before Tina took him back to bed.

• The Proof of Stellar Authority locked onto Kang De’s ring finger, resisted everyone’s attempts to remove it, and answered his thoughts by producing brilliant light.
• Cascading Snow and Reknos questioned whether the ring had been tampered with, while Tina worried about Kang De and he sensed no malice from the artifact.
• Bishop Peila confirmed the ring was genuine, called its choice of Kang De Sura’s grace, and offered to research its removal and arrange training for him.
• After Peila left, Reknos lamented how Goth’s honorable ways had left it vulnerable and asked Kang De whether justice and kindness could accomplish anything.
• Kang De promised to help protect Goth and change the world, then teased Reknos about marrying Tina before she led him away for bed.

After an attack on Kang De, Tina insisted he stay in her room under close protection, while she and A Xing competed for his attention under Cascading Snow’s watch. The next morning, word arrived that Hong San had come from Valentan.

• On the walk back, Tina explained that she had stood up to Reknos to spare Kang De resentment, and Kang De said he understood the Grand Duke’s mix of public duty and paternal jealousy.
• A Xing interrupted Tina’s attempt to kiss Kang De, then clung to him until he carried her on his back; Tina joked that they looked like a family of three.
• Tina moved Kang De’s belongings into her room and asked him to sleep there, while Cascading Snow and A Xing kept watch and prevented the pair from getting intimate.
• Kang De woke beside Tina, with A Xing nearby and Cascading Snow on the sofa, and made breakfast in the White Mist World.
• A maid reported that visitors had arrived from Valentan, led by Kang De’s countryman Hong San.

Kang De welcomed Hong San and his companions to Maple Leaf Palace, then took Hong San aside to discuss the attack that had badly wounded Horus. Hong San proposed planning for the worst in case the dragons and the captured assassin yielded no answers.

• Kang De rushed to greet Hong San after learning he had arrived, while Tina arranged formal accommodations for him and his party.
• Kan Fantian joyfully reunited with Kang De and asked to see Horus, whom the greenskins called Little Mek.
• Kang De embraced Hong San, learned that an elven army had escorted the group, and congratulated him on their safe journey.
• Kang De brought Hong San into a private room and explained that assassins had attacked Maple Leaf Palace and badly wounded Horus.
• Kang De described the uncertain investigation into the attack, and Hong San urged him to prepare for the possibility that the dragons were lying or the trail would go cold.

Hong San advised Kang De that he needed to unite Goth's strength with his own, while joking about Kang De's romantic troubles and arguing over whether marriage to Tina was the right way to do it. Kang De revealed that Tina had already proposed creating an independent armed force for them, just as Tina entered the room.

• Hong San explained that Kang De's compassion had led him to protect Tina from guilt, then teased him about Tina and Lady Crimson.
• Hong San said his experience with women and reading people's feelings made him better equipped than Kang De to understand romance.
• Hong San argued that Kang De lacked authority in Goth because he had not formally joined its power structure through marriage to Tina, though he warned that joining could entangle Kang De in Goth's corrupting politics.
• Hong San proposed that Kang De first win Tina over and gain her cooperation in a plan to unite their interests without rushing into marriage.
• Kang De revealed that Tina had told him the previous night that she wanted to establish an armed force independent of her father and loyal only to her and Kang De.
• Tina entered the room.

Santos suspected that Hong San’s arrival confirmed Dong Tianming had deliberately prepared Kang De’s rise, and he contacted the Dragon Emperor with a theory about the attack. Meanwhile, Kang De trained Hong San to use firearms and discussed the Grand Duke’s offer to reopen the Cathayan embassy, which could give Kang De an official claim to power.

• Santos reviewed Hong San’s history and concluded that Dong Tianming had chosen Kang De, then considered whether Dong’s enemies might have attacked him.
• Lily said Santos was acting on intuition, but Santos contacted the Dragon Emperor anyway to report his theory.
• Kang De taught Hong San to use rifles, pistols, and shotguns, and tasked him with training the followers from Valentan.
• Kang De told Hong San that the Grand Duke planned to reopen the Cathayan embassy and offer it as a residence for Kang De’s group.
• Hong San recognized that reopening the embassy for Kang De would effectively fabricate a claim for him.