Chapter Summaries

Gao De explained the Northern Aethernet’s World Wide Web and Spirit Message to the Aether Spider, then tested both services successfully. He connected with Sunaifa in Phoenix by voice call and told her the Aethernet had solved half of the empire’s connectivity problem.

• Gao De explained how the Aethernet would provide searchable knowledge, messages, voice calls, broadcasts, and information uploads, and the Aether Spider agreed to maintain it in exchange for fresh information.
• The Spirit Realm Whisper ended, and Gao De returned to the Mage Plane, where he tested the World Wide Web through his Secret Key and retrieved the spell formula for Comprehend Languages.
• Gao De opened the Friend List and called Warmother, while Sunaifa and Aisha waited beside a Secret Key in Phoenix City Hall.
• Sunaifa accepted the call and spoke with Gao De through Spirit Message, confirming that the voice connection worked.
• Gao De told Sunaifa that transportation and communication determined an empire’s territorial limits and that they had now solved half the problem, then asked her to check his message.

Gao De tested the Aethernet with Sunaifa and Aisha, then planned its expansion across Phoenix by producing Secret Keys for its mages. After a month of cultivation in Flora's Forest, he reached the threshold of advancing to First Circle and began the breakthrough.

• Sunaifa and Aisha used Gao De's Aethernet Secret Key, and Sunaifa received Gao De's answer to why elephants were destined for extinction.
• Gao De reflected on how magical civilization could develop technologies along paths unlike those of his previous world and recognized the Aethernet's potential for communication and governance.
• Gao De planned to use The King's Secret Key to contact the Aether Spiders and produce an initial batch of three hundred Secret Keys for Phoenix's 3rd Circle Mages and offices.
• Gao De stayed in Flora's Forest while Eevee's condition stabilized, spending a month cultivating and studying spells and runes.
• Gao De reached the threshold of advancing to First Circle and began the breakthrough without using a Circle Advancement Potion.

Gao De completed his First Circle advancement in Truefrost Secrets and awakened his Truefrost Bloodline, gaining Truefrost Runes, powerful ice abilities, and new spells. After returning to Phoenix, he expanded his Second Circle spell repertoire to prepare for the Military Mage Combat Tournament.

• Gao De advanced Truefrost Secrets to First Circle and awakened his Truefrost Bloodline, which gave him automatic Ice Elemental absorption and knowledge of ice spells.
• Gao De's Liquid Mana transformed into Truefrost Mana, and he acquired Frost Arrow, Ice Bolt, Aegis of Frost, and the Truefrost Spell Ice Butterfly.
• Gao De tested his bloodline's natural control of Ice Elementals, then left Flora's Forest with Eevee and returned to Phoenix to cultivate the Evergreen Longevity Sutra.
• Gao De continued taking Boneblood Bramble Elixir and constructed nineteen new Second Circle Spell Models, bringing his total to more than twenty-eight before the Military Mage Combat Tournament.

Gao De used Mind Clarity Incense and a Hyperthymesia Potion to recall and record ideas for Phoenix’s urban planning, transportation, and economy. The Ram Clan’s Elder Yagang arrived in Phoenix and announced that he had come to protect the Truefrost Tribe’s Sacred Tree.

• Gao De used Mind Clarity Incense to review memories of city planning, logistics, and economics, then wrote down what he recalled before the potion’s effects faded.
• Gao De woke the next day and learned that Dulin Fire had returned to Phoenix with Ram Clan elder Yagang.
• Dulin Fire observed Phoenix’s new farmland and school as Yagang waited with Sunaifa at City Hall.
• Gao De welcomed Yagang, who explained that the Artisan Master had sent him to protect the Truefrost Tribe’s Sacred Tree.

Gao De agreed to let Master Yagang guard Yggdrasil and arranged for him to stay near the planned Valar Tunnel exit, while planning to brew wine and make use of the Ram Clan’s smithing expertise. After learning that Void Eyes could record and store images, Gao De inspected Phoenix’s agricultural projects, then received a Spirit Message call from Valar Bay.

• Master Yagang offered to guard Yggdrasil, and Flora judged that he bore no malice after telling him he needed to read more books.
• Gao De approved Yagang’s stay near the planned Valar Tunnel exit and decided to brew grain wine for him in hopes of gaining access to the Ram Clan’s smithing expertise.
• Sunaifa identified the Void Creature’s remains as thirty-four Void Eyes, Fifth Order Extraordinary Materials that could capture and store images.
• Gao De inspected the growing Water Spirit Lotus Root grove, the Icelizard Blood Fungus industrial park, and Phoenix’s other key projects.
• Gao De received a Spirit Message call from Valar Bay.

Gao De learned that the first trade fleet from Black Sail City had arrived at Valar Bay with vital supplies and skilled newcomers selected by Sarah. Claude welcomed the weary arrivals to the orderly Northern Territory, where they would begin new lives and help develop the Northwest.

• Claude told Gao De that the first ships from the Blue Flame Islands had arrived with Spell Elixir materials, mining tools, machinery, and other scarce supplies.
• Gao De ordered Claude to give the arriving technical workers food and lodging, register their skills and experience, and send him the details.
• Nine ships docked at Valar Bay, including five Plantagenet brigantines and four Gold Coin Hunters vessels carrying cargo and people from Black Sail City.
• The newcomers saw Valar Bay's stone-and-ice dock and orderly camp, which contradicted their expectations of a primitive wilderness.
• Claude introduced himself as Valar Bay's governor and welcomed the newcomers on behalf of Gao De and Sunaifa, inviting them to join the development of the Northwest.

Nine cargo ships from Black Sail City brought Phoenix valuable supplies and one hundred skilled newcomers, including the First-Tier Elixirist Leini Jingteng, whom Gao De considered the most remarkable recruit. Leini settled into her new Northern Territory home and unpacked the worn tools she hoped would help her make a living.

• The nine ships docked safely, and Claude checked their cargo before sending the inventory to Gao De and Sunaifa.
• Gao De and Sunaifa discussed using an old drilling machine and Rapid Excavation Spell Elixir to speed construction of Valar Tunnel.
• Sunaifa reviewed the roster of one hundred recruits and learned that it included four Third Tier professionals and many artisans Phoenix needed.
• Gao De pointed out Leini Jingteng as the roster's most remarkable recruit because her cheap Low-Potency Healing Potions had driven down sales at three Karmond City elixir shops.
• Leini recalled fleeing to Black Sail City after the shops suppressed her business, then unpacked her few belongings and carefully arranged her worn elixir-making tools in her new home.

Gao De and Sunaifa visited Lainey in Phoenix and asked about her background as an Elixirist. After Lainey admitted that her Weak Healing Potions were defective products and that her skills were poor, Gao De asked how she had managed to make so many of them while still a Second-Order Apprentice.

• Lainey prepared herself to live modestly in the Northern Territory and opened her door to Claude, Gao De, and Sunaifa.
• Gao De and Sunaifa entered Lainey's room, asked about her living conditions, and promised to arrange better housing after her work assignment was confirmed.
• Gao De explained that he and Sunaifa had come to meet Lainey specifically and reviewed her background and career from her file.
• Lainey admitted that her mage advancement had depended on purchased resources and luck, and that her Weak Healing Potions were defective products she had made out of desperation.
• Gao De asked how Lainey had concocted so many Weak Elixirs by herself while she was still a Second-Order Apprentice.

Lainey Thorn revealed her handwritten method for mass-producing Low-Potency Healing Potions, including a theory of Magic Elements and reaction formulas that astonished Gao De and Sunaifa. Lainey began recounting the notebook’s history, introducing its first owner, Elwin, whose surviving notes showed his determination to uncover a systematic art of elixirs.

• Gao De reassured Lainey that Phoenix would reward her for sharing her supposedly heretical brewing method, and she handed him her notebook.
• Gao De discovered that the notebook’s final pages outlined Magic Elements and a reaction formula for making Low-Potency Healing Potions, and he recognized the work as Lainey’s contribution.
• Lainey explained that the notebook had belonged to Elwin, then her teacher Leo, before she added her own research; Elwin and Leo were both gone.
• Lainey began telling Gao De and Sunaifa the notebook’s history, revealing Elwin’s diary questions about whether someone with weak magical talent could become a great Elixirist.
• Elwin’s diary showed his resolve to find an art that would reveal the secrets of elixirs, before the notebook shifted into formal research from its third page onward.

The chapter traced how Elwin first proposed analyzing elixirs through magic elements, then showed how Leo developed the idea into a system of reference substances, measurements, and titration. In his final years, Leo found Lainey in Acorn Village, recognized her talent, and made her his apprentice and the inheritor of the unfinished research.

• Elwin proposed that elixir ingredients contained magic elements and that their reactions could be studied, but his crude experiments and lack of measuring tools left his research unfinished.
• Leo discovered Elwin's forgotten notes and spent decades developing reference substances, standard neutralization reactions, titration, and rough Magic Element Charts.
• After retiring from the family's elixir shop, Leo moved to Acorn Village and met Lainey, the daughter of the farmer he hired to tend his fields.
• Leo taught Lainey to read, identify magical plants, and practice magic, discovering that she had mage talent and a strong grasp of logic.
• Leo gave Lainey Elwin's notes, explained his research, and formally made her his apprentice after she identified flaws in his experiments.

Lainey explained how she and Leo developed Quantitative Herbology, a standardized method for mass-producing low-potency elixirs, and how her success led to persecution and exile. After Sarah's recruitment program brought her to the Northern Territory, Gao De reacted to her story with a cryptic remark about a guaranteed SSR.

• Lainey and Leo discovered catalysts, and before he died Leo left her his notes, tools, and unfinished work.
• Lainey refined the system by standardizing magic element units, charting materials, and creating Magic Element Reaction Formulas, then named it Quantitative Herbology.
• Lainey used the system to produce cheap, consistent low-potency potions and became a First Circle Mage, but the three major elixir shops and the Elixirist Association of the Duchy of Farrol targeted her.
• Lainey fled to Black Sail City, where her potions found few customers, and she accepted Sarah's recruitment offer to travel to the Northern Territory.
• After Lainey told her story, Gao De remarked that a hundred consecutive pulls guaranteed an SSR, leaving Sunaifa confused.

Gao De welcomed Leini’s Quantitative Herbology research and promised resources and Flora’s help to develop it. After discussing the need for gold to mint Phoenix’s currency, Gao De and Sunaifa decided to move ahead with unifying the Northern Territory.

• Gao De praised Leini’s Quantitative Herbology, offered to fund her research, and asked her to help create teaching materials for public instruction.
• Gao De told Leini that Flora, Phoenix’s Minister of Agriculture, would work with her to refine the Magic Element Charts.
• Gao De reflected to Sunaifa on how Leini’s and Jose’s discoveries might have been lost, then recognized the urgent need to establish a currency system.
• Aisha outlined the obstacles to mining gold in the Northern Territory: extreme cold, frozen ground, and difficult transportation.
• Sunaifa proposed using Leini’s research to help miners, Winter’s Hammer for mining and tools, and the Frostwolf Clan’s Snow Wolves for transport.
• Gao De agreed with Sunaifa and declared that it was time to unify the Northern Territory.

Gao De and his allies prepared to unify the Northern Territory by cutting off the Frostwolf Clan’s food supply and marching on Winter’s Hammer. He rallied Phoenix’s people behind the coming war, which became their shared cause as the army prepared to depart in two days.

• Aisha proposed starving the Frostwolf Clan into submission while concentrating forces to attack Winter’s Hammer, and Gao De assigned her and Sunaifa to coordinate resources and troops.
• Gao De organized Phoenix’s first pre-war mobilization, using schools and students to spread news that Phoenix would march on Winter’s Hammer.
• Gao De told the packed central square that Yarna had plotted to assassinate him and announced that Phoenix would attack Winter’s Hammer in two days.
• Gao De called on Phoenix’s workers, City Hall staff, and Frostborn Mages to support the war, then drew the Northwind Sword as the crowd shouted, “Fight, for Phoenix, for our victory!”

Gao De and Sunaifa received Yarna’s plea for peace, but Truefrost prepared to march against Winter’s Hammer under Sunaifa’s command. Yarna received Sunaifa’s one-word reply, “Read,” and crushed the letter in fury.

• Yarna sent Gao De a courteous negotiation letter that denied her responsibility for Winter’s Hammer’s rebellion and asked Truefrost to halt its preparations for war.
• Gao De agreed to reply, and Sunaifa wrote “Read” on Yarna’s letter before sending it back with the envoy.
• Gao De saw the orderly Truefrost army off as Sunaifa prepared to lead the campaign against Winter’s Hammer.
• Yarna surveyed Winter’s Hammer’s chaotic troop assembly and struggled to choose between fighting and surrendering.
• Yarna read Sunaifa’s one-word reply and clenched the letter into a crumpled ball in anger.

Yarna ordered Winter's Hammer to flee before Sunaifa arrived, but Sunaifa caught her at the settlement and demanded her life. Sunaifa defeated Yarna with her Truefrost Arrows, and Yarna's heart stopped in the freezing attack.

• Yarna told the Grand Elder to prepare Winter's Hammer for an overnight migration and to leave behind elderly and injured tribespeople who could not keep pace.
• Yarna announced the evacuation, but Sunaifa arrived before the tribe could withdraw and refused to believe Yarna's plea that the past attack had been a misunderstanding.
• Sunaifa demanded Yarna's life and said Winter's Hammer's people would be taken under her command.
• Sunaifa's first Truefrost Arrow overcame Yarna's fire and forced her back, revealing how much stronger Sunaifa had become.
• Sunaifa fired two arrows that pursued Yarna after she teleported and froze her warhammer and body until her heart stopped.

Sunaifa defeated Yarna and secured Winter's Hammer's submission, then welcomed Phoenix's army and inspected the tribe's forging facilities. She left Winter's Hammer's workshop intact, recognizing that its fire-based forging system was essential to incorporating the tribe's skills into Phoenix.

• Sunaifa killed Yarna with three Truefrost Arrows, and Joran submitted while offering her Winter's Hammer.
• Sunaifa ordered Joran to halt the migration and keep Winter's Hammer's people in camp until Truefrost's army arrived.
• Aisha arrived with Phoenix's army, inventoried Winter's Hammer's people and resources, and led Sunaifa to inspect the settlement's workshops.
• Joran explained how Winter's Hammer had built seven workshops using earthfire from Flameheart Volcano and described their furnaces and auxiliary facilities.
• Aisha told Sunaifa that the workshop could not be abandoned because Winter's Hammer's craftsmen would be useless without it.

Sunaifa and Aisha planned Winter’s Hammer’s gradual integration as a Phoenix satellite city, and Gao De approved their measures and named it Ironforge Citadel. The chapter left Gao De anticipating that Phoenix’s urbanization and industrialization could accelerate after the Northern Territory’s unification.

• Sunaifa decided to establish a satellite city at Winter’s Hammer, using the Aethernet and Phoenix oversight to maintain control.
• Aisha and Sunaifa planned to rename the settlement, control its food supply, and gradually relocate and integrate its residents while preserving the forging workshops.
• Gao De received Azure Wolf’s report that Yarna had been executed, Joran had surrendered, and Winter’s Hammer’s workshops and core artisans remained intact.
• Gao De approved the satellite city plan and named the city Ironforge Citadel.
• Gao De recognized that the Northern Territory’s nomadic lifestyle and Phoenix’s large-scale farms could support rapid urbanization and industrialization.

Sunaifa and Aisha returned to Phoenix after establishing Ironforge Citadel, with Joran brought to meet Gao De. Gao De declared that founding a nation was now on the agenda and began planning a unified Northern Territory currency.

• Sunaifa chose Eldrin to oversee Ironforge Citadel while Joran was brought to Phoenix under her supervision.
• Gao De welcomed Joran and discussed Phoenix’s growing shortage of capable officials with Sunaifa and Aisha.
• Gao De told Sunaifa and Aisha that Phoenix would found a nation after unifying the Northern Territory.
• Aisha identified a unified monetary system as a necessary step, and Gao De outlined the available coin-minting workshops, metals, and miners.
• Gao De said they needed to decide the currency’s name, emblem, and shape.

Gao De, Aisha, and Sunaifa discussed how the Northern Territory could establish a widely recognized currency, then Sunaifa revealed that Anivia had created Truefrost and survived her ancient fall by transforming into a flower. The chapter ended as Sunaifa showed them the Purple Jade Flower, Anivia’s dormant form.

• Gao De, Aisha, and Sunaifa discussed the reasons great-power currencies circulated widely and agreed that the Northern Territory should mint standardized gold, silver, and copper coins with distinctive cultural symbols.
• Gao De suggested Truefrost, Northwind, Blizzard, and Icejade Wutong as symbols, while Aisha proposed including Gao De and Sunaifa on the future currency.
• Sunaifa explained that killing the Void Creature had loosened her Icekin bloodline and that an eruption of its power at Winter's Hammer gave her fragmentary knowledge about Anivia.
• Sunaifa revealed that Anivia had been an ancient guardian who helped the Northern Territory survive and created Truefrost.
• Sunaifa said Anivia had exhausted her source power to stop an ancient catastrophe, then transformed into a flower and awaited rebirth; she conjured the Purple Jade Flower as Anivia's dormant form.

Gao De, Sunaifa, and Aisha planned Northern Territory currency that could unite the tribes and resist counterfeiting. They settled the coin designs and devised a Truefrost-based edge mark, then looked to two Alchemist Masters from the Ram Clan for help with surface security.

• Sunaifa explained that Anivia would one day awaken from the Purple Jade Flower, and Gao De agreed that the flower should represent the Northern Territory on its currency.
• Sunaifa urged them to avoid Truefrost tribal symbols that could alienate other tribes, so Aisha proposed Lady Flora and Truefrost for the copper coins.
• Sunaifa chose her own portrait with Yggdrasil for the silver coins and gave Gao De the gold-coin portrait, paired with the Purple Jade Flower.
• Aisha described three layers of coin security: protected edges, intricate surface designs, and fixed purity and weight.
• Gao De and Sunaifa devised a way to form random, hard-to-copy edge patterns by cooling heated coins against Truefrost.
• Gao De suggested that the two Alchemist Masters from the Ram Clan could help produce the surface designs.