Recaps

Xia Fan rescued Yan Qing and Olina from the Bureau of Military Affairs, then returned to Jinxia City with his companions. He turned to the city's growing financial pressures and announced a winter campaign to bring Shenzhou under Jinxia's control, while Olina woke uncertain about her future.

• Xia Fan followed Yan Qing's warning out of Wanjing Building, but the Bureau captured her after exposing her role in his escape.
• Xia Fan and his allies stayed in Shangyuan City and used explosions during the Enthronement Ceremony to draw the Bureau away from its prison.
• Xia Fan freed Yan Qing and Olina, while Luo Qingqing killed Ning Chunan and disappeared briefly after seeing a mysterious white door.
• Bai Zhan attacked the escaping group, and Xia Fan summoned the Nine Heavens Heavenly Thunder to cover their flight on Olina's wings.
• Ning Qianshi concluded that Xia Fan had become a Listener and ordered investigations as the Bureau assessed the escape and the damage to its control.
• Xia Fan returned to Jinxia City and reunited with Ning Wanjun, then reviewed reports showing rapid growth, rising costs, and strained resources.
• Xia Fan proposed seizing surrounding cities and towns during the winter, and Ning Wanjun supported the plan to expand Jinxia's control over Shenzhou.
• Olina woke in Jinxia after eleven days unconscious, learned that her envoy post and Lineage status were gone, and worried about how she and her younger brother would live.

Ning Wanjun’s forces conquered Baisha and Shenzhou, while Jinxia’s expanding Academy drew new Qi Sense Users and its policies welcomed Yao. Chi arrived seeking a place where Dragons were needed, and Xia Fan showed her the city’s saltworks and farmland as she considered him as a possible husband.

• Olina accepted Xia Fan’s offer to cover her clansman’s tuition in exchange for repayment through work, while Magistrate Qian and the Fei Family prepared to ambush the Affairs Bureau’s investigators.
• Ning Wanjun led the assault on Baisha City with Mechanical Beasts and cannons, defeated its defenders, and ordered an investigation into wrongful convictions and concealed murders.
• Jinxia announced that lawful Yao would have ordinary people’s rights, and Luo Heng discovered that seven of his students could sense qi.
• Xia Fan learned that Academy students were awakening as Qi Sense Users in growing numbers and ordered the Bureau to keep the discovery quiet while the Academy expanded its practical classes.
• Olina flew to Shenzhou to support Ning Wanjun’s campaign, helping break Baihe City’s defenses before returning to Jinxia and accepting her neighbors’ offer to teach her cooking.
• Yan Qing met Chi, a Dragon traveling to Jinxia in search of a suitable husband, and accompanied her group toward the city.
• Xia Fan welcomed Chi and Kong Xuanzi, heard how the King of Wei’s betrayal led to the Dragons’ isolation, and invited them to settle in Jinxia.
• Chi observed that Jinxia’s residents treated her horns with curiosity rather than fear as Xia Fan showed her the saltworks, winter farmland, Mechanical Beasts, and Demon Race operators.

Xia Fan and Jinxia joined forces with Sainiya’s Elves to rescue the captives aboard the Silver Star Tree Boat and defeat the Empire’s forces. After trapping a Great Demon beneath the sea, they faced Tural’s invasion of Jinxia, where Xia Fan’s Ice Boats met the enemy fleet in battle.

• Sainiya accepted Xia Fan’s plan to help the Elves rather than flee, and Noah’s rescuers set out to find the captured Tree Boat.
• After learning that Tural’s fleet included numerous pirate ships, Xia Fan and Ning Wanjun planned a nearshore battle and ordered Jinxia to prepare for combat.
• The vanguard reached Silver Star, where Fann’s team rescued Zhuofulan and Zhuoka and learned that Imperial forces held many Elves captive.
• Fann’s group and the Jinxia fighters freed the captives and attacked the Spirit Tree’s cavern, where Yan Qing’s Star-Net devastated the Imperial garrison.
• Songxing summoned a Great Demon that consumed the living, but Luo Qingqing and Fero Matni helped sink it beneath the seabed using the Tree Boat’s roots.
• Tural sent pirates into Jinxia to capture the Elves, but the city’s defenders ambushed them and drove them back.
• Tural ordered his fleet to bombard Jinxia, but Xia Fan’s windless conditions and Ice Boats brought a new threat to the ships.
• Lord Tural ordered the Invincible’s guns to fire on the approaching Ice Boats.

Jinxia defeated Natating’s fleet, welcomed the Silver Star Tree Boat, and held a Spring Festival celebration that made Chi a citywide sensation. As Jinxia expanded its trade and defenses, Ning Qianshi prepared operations against it and Yama sought its military support.

• Ning Wanjun, Xia Fan, and Qian Yan led the assault on Natating’s fleet, where Xia Fan helped defeat the regenerating Tural Nat and Jinxia rescued imprisoned Elves.
• Ning Qianshi established centralized institutions for Qi Sense Users and officials, then planned to gather intelligence on Xia Fan before acting against Jinxia.
• Silver Star joined Jinxia, and Xia Fan recruited Liu Ruyan and Chi for the New Year celebration, where Chi’s unconventional song moved the crowd and inspired listeners.
• Jinxia held a busy trade fair and expanded its commercial ties, while Xia Fan’s experiments with the Elves’ Insect-Catching Fruit suggested a new use for invisible light.
• Olina questioned captured captain Feilin Carter, who revealed Natating’s plans, its search for the Holy Grail, and the Black Barrier Zone before offering to train Jinxia’s sailors.
• Ning Qianshi sent Fei Nian to organize agents against Jinxia, and Fei Nian persuaded Zhou Sheng to return and assist the Bureau of Military Affairs.
• Wuyue Yao asked Ning Wanjun to help Yama against Dong Sheng, and Xia Fan proposed using Imperial flags to sow suspicion and supplied Air Rifles for Yama.
• Ning Wanjun’s officers prepared defenses against a possible attack from the Capital Region, while men in Baihe City secretly removed silver from a rain-soaked carriage.