Recaps

Li Lin defeated Xia Mi in the final round of Day of Freedom, winning the students’ admiration. When he began to explain that he liked an upperclassman, Xia Mi’s Golden Eyes flared and she demanded to know whom he meant.

• Xia Mi challenged Li Lin to a serious martial arts match and teased him about serving her tea if he lost.
• Fingel and the injured students gathered to watch as Li Lin and Xia Mi fought on the tree-lined path.
• Li Lin used his physical advantage and familiarity with Xia Mi’s techniques to defeat her, and she surrendered.
• Xia Mi congratulated Li Lin and asked him to give a victory speech.
• Li Lin began to confess that he had fallen for an upperclassman, but Xia Mi’s Golden Eyes flared as she asked who he liked, frightening the crowd away.

After teasing Xia Mi with a fake story about falling for an upperclassman, Li Lin heard her nervously ask him to date her so he would not date anyone else. Meanwhile, Caesar prepared to hand Norton Hall over to the Martial Arts Club, and Schneider asked Angers to let Li Lin audit the second-years’ War Practice Class.

• Xia Mi interrogated Li Lin about the supposed upperclassman, then realized he had invented the story to tease her.
• Xia Mi shyly asked Li Lin to go on dates with her and avoid dating anyone else for now.
• Caesar overheard Xia Mi’s invitation, left champagne outside the Martial Arts Club office, and arranged for Norton Hall to be prepared for Li Lin and Xia Mi.
• Angers and Schneider discussed Li Lin’s potential and the concerns surrounding his place at Cassel College.
• Schneider asked Angers to make Li Lin an auditing student so he could join the second-years’ War Practice Class and fight a Dead Servant.

After the Student Union celebrated its Day of Freedom victory, Caesar warned its members that next week’s War Practice Class would put them on a real battlefield. He then tried to push Li Lin and Xia Mi toward a romance while hinting that Li Lin should take ownership of Norton Hall.

• Caesar received a call from Frost Gattuso, who warned him that Professor Schneider would command his War Practice Class group and cautioned him about Li Lin.
• Caesar addressed the Student Union, urging its members to carry their pride into War Practice Class without underestimating the dangers of a real battlefield.
• Li Lin joined the hall’s toast to the Student Union and the coming battlefield while Xia Mi asked him about a weekend date.
• Caesar told Li Lin that he should claim Norton Hall and take the girl he liked to its balcony, prompting Xia Mi to hide behind Li Lin and eat her cake.

Li Lin and Xia Mi prepared for their first date while Li Lin learned that they had been chosen for the second-years’ war practicum. After spending the afternoon at the shooting range with Fingel, Li Lin hurried to the train station, where Xia Mi was waiting for him.

• Li Lin researched Chicago date attractions during class, and Fingel arrived late with an overnight KFC meal.
• Li Lin asked Fingel why he and Xia Mi had been selected for the war practicum, and Fingel said the Executive Department wanted to test their reactions to Dead Servants and prepare them for combat.
• Xia Mi left class after growing jealous of Li Lin talking with Fingel, then texted him to meet her at the train station after class.
• Li Lin left class with Fingel and practiced handling firearms at the shooting range for half the day.
• Li Lin changed clothes and rushed to the train station, where Xia Mi waved to him from the platform.

Xia Mi led Li Lin on their first date through downtown Chicago, turning it into a playful mission while hiding deeper feelings stirred by her memories. The date continued toward a riverside dinner, and Xia Mi called the city her patrol territory.

• Xia Mi gave Li Lin a hand-drawn map and dragged him through downtown Chicago on a date she had planned.
• At Millennium Park, Xia Mi insisted on taking photos together and teased Li Lin about using them to threaten him someday.
• Li Lin and Xia Mi walked beside Lake Michigan, where Caesar messaged that he had booked them a river-view dinner at Smyth.
• Xia Mi reflected on memories of the throne, death, and fate, then chose to stop dwelling on them and pointed out that Chicago resembled a steel dragon by the lake.
• Xia Mi said Chicago was now her patrol territory.

Li Lin and Xia Mi spent a date shopping and visiting Navy Pier, where Xia Mi teased him about confessing while struggling with her growing feelings for him. The chapter left Xia Mi realizing that she liked Li Lin, though neither of them defined their relationship.

• Li Lin used the Martial Arts Club’s funds to buy Xia Mi gifts, and she accepted them happily while complaining that he had bought too much.
• Li Lin and Xia Mi took a cab to Navy Pier and decided to ride the Centennial Ferris Wheel together.
• During the ride, Xia Mi hinted that Li Lin should say something romantic, but he guessed she would reject a confession.
• Xia Mi watched Chicago’s nightscape and recognized that her feelings for Li Lin had grown into liking him.

After her date with Li Lin, Xia Mi returned to Norton Hall and remembered how their relationship began. As she faced the coming War Practice Class and her fear of Li Lin’s fate, she chose for a while to savor the ordinary happiness of being with him.

• Xia Mi teased Li Lin about his poor performance on their date before they said goodnight at the dormitory fork.
• Walking alone, Xia Mi remembered how Li Lin had shared his breakfast with her when they were children and how their roles later reversed.
• Xia Mi went to the renovated Norton Hall residence she had arranged for Li Lin and worried that the Secret Party would send him into dangerous battles.
• Xia Mi called Su Qian to discuss War Practice Class precautions, then joked with her about the date.
• Alone in Norton Hall, Xia Mi reflected on her wish for a peaceful, ordinary life and sat beneath the moonlight setting aside thoughts of dragons and war.

Li Lin and Caesar received A-Rank Executive Department uniforms and learned they would investigate a gang using a drug that could turn ordinary people into Mixed-Bloods, though dozens had died. At the train station, Caesar tried to coach Li Lin on romance and gave him an extravagant perfume gift for Xia Mi before the mission briefing.

• Fingel delivered Executive Department uniforms and warned Li Lin and Caesar that their mission might involve killing someone.
• Fingel explained that a gang had seized a Japanese Mixed-Blood and a drug that could force ordinary people to develop dragon genes, causing dozens of deaths.
• Caesar questioned why the case required students and learned it was an A-Rank mission focused on a complex investigation rather than dragonized Dead Servants.
• Li Lin and Caesar received a gathering order after breakfast and saw Xia Mi waiting at the train station with a second-year girl.
• Caesar learned that Li Lin had not changed his relationship with Xia Mi after their date and gave him an unopened luxury perfume to give her.

On the train to an A-Rank mission, Aki Shigede teased Xia Mi about her relationship with Li Lin after discovering he had given her an extravagant perfume. Li Lin then learned Xia Mi had spent 880,000 US dollars of the Martial Arts Club’s money on renovations for Norton Hall, leaving him stunned.

• Aki Shigede asked Xia Mi whether she and Li Lin were dating, and Xia Mi insisted they were only close friends.
• Xia Mi showed Aki Shigede the Royal Dignity No. 1 perfume Li Lin had given her, and Aki teased her by calling it an engagement gift and offering to buy it.
• Li Lin found Caesar speaking with Paci Gattuso, who explained that the Gattuso family had arranged repairs and renovations for Norton Hall at Xia Mi’s request.
• Paci told Li Lin that the rushed renovation would cost 880,000 US dollars after Caesar negotiated a discount.
• Li Lin realized Xia Mi had used the club’s bank card to pay for the renovations and slumped in shock.

Schneider briefed the students on Molotov Cocktail, a drug that triggered fatal Dragon Blood reactions, and the missing survivor Leonardo Williams. When Agent Jon lost contact at the clinic, Schneider sent the students with the First Operations Group to secure the site and find him.

• Schneider showed the students evidence that Molotov Cocktail had caused deaths and Dragon Blood reactions among ordinary people in Los Angeles.
• Schneider explained that Japanese researcher Shinji Katakura had brought the drug to the United States before a gang attacked and killed him.
• Surveillance showed Leonardo Williams surviving an injection and escaping the clinic with two bottles.
• Schneider appointed Caesar Gattuso squad leader and outlined the operation's rules on Word Spirits and firearms.
• Norma reported that Agent Jon had lost contact at the clinic, and Schneider ordered an S-Rank mission escalation and reinforcements.
• Schneider gave the students special operational authority and ordered them to secure the clinic, search for Jon, and confirm his vital signs.

The First Operations Group planned to infiltrate 18th Street Gang territory to find the missing Jon, with Li Lin posing as a recruit and Caesar providing sniper cover. Li Lin entered the gang’s dental clinic, but the mission shifted to eliminating witnesses after he threw a gang member through the glass door.

• Declan explained that the team would use infiltration and decapitation rather than launch a frontal assault, and assigned Li Lin to pose as a gang recruit.
• The group rode in a modified van carrying an explosive charge, then stopped a kilometer from the target area.
• Declan gave Caesar an anti-materiel sniper rifle and assigned him to cover the team’s retreat.
• Li Lin entered the dental clinic disguised as an injured high school student and was led inside by a tattooed gang member.
• The tattooed man flew through the clinic’s glass door, and Li Lin told Caesar he had attacked him for trying to touch his ass.
• Li Lin told the team that the plan had changed and they might need to eliminate all witnesses.

Li Lin and Aki Shigede searched the gang-run dental hospital for evidence while Schneider ordered the team to destroy the site within half an hour. After Aki found signs that Jon had died and was ambushed underground, Li Lin intervened and revealed the suspected Time Zero user.

• Schneider took command, ordered Norma to send false orders, and redirected the team to contain enemies around the hospital.
• Li Lin kept the gang members occupied while Aki Shigede entered the hospital to find its underground clinic.
• Aki Shigede found the blood-soaked clinic and Jon's Half-Rotted World Tree shoulder badge, leading her to fear he was dead.
• Schneider warned Aki Shigede to activate Ghost Illumination as an unseen attacker closed in, but it was too late to conceal her position.
• Li Lin dropped through the ceiling, drove the attacker back, and struck him with a concrete-and-rebar trap, revealing the scaled young boxer suspected of possessing Time Zero.

Li Lin fought Leonardo, a Mixed-Blood with the Word Spirit Time Zero, and overpowered him with earth manipulation and martial skill. Leonardo fled into the sewers, and Professor Schneider ordered Li Lin and Aki Shigede to withdraw while Executive Team Three handled the pursuit.

• Aki Shigede left the operating room to search the underground clinic for the Molotov Cocktail while Li Lin confronted Leonardo.
• Li Lin used walls and pillars of earth to intercept Leonardo’s high-speed attacks, then battered him with stone-clad punches until he regained consciousness.
• Leonardo panicked at the sight of Li Lin and fled into the sewers using Time Zero, witnessed by Aki Shigede and her collar camera.
• Professor Schneider ordered Li Lin and Aki Shigede to return to Executive Team One and leave the cleanup to Executive Team Three.
• Li Lin suspected that the Molotov Cocktail was intended for Mixed-Bloods and wondered whether the Secret Party had long known how to refine bloodlines.

Li Lin and Xia Mi shared dinner on the Texaco Building rooftop before Professor Schneider summoned the operations teams and revealed that Leonardo had used the Molotov Cocktail again and slaughtered his family. Schneider assigned Li Lin to confront Leonardo at close range while the other operatives supported him from a distance.

• Xia Mi brought Li Lin dinner and told him that the Executive Department called him a dragon slayer chosen by fate.
• Xia Mi considered how to make Li Lin pursue power and become her retainer, while struggling with the possibility that she might one day have to fight him.
• Professor Schneider reported that the Molotov Cocktail was addictive and hallucinogenic, and that Leonardo had returned home and killed everyone around him, including his family.
• Li Lin told Schneider that the tragedy could have been prevented if Schneider had approved his actions at the hospital basement, and Schneider explained why he had stopped him.
• Schneider ordered the operatives to eliminate Leonardo, assigned Li Lin to engage him at close range, and told everyone else to keep at least eight hundred meters away.

Leonardo lost control after using Dragon Blood to attack the debt collectors who threatened his family, then slaughtered the 18th Street Gang boss and others who entered his home. Li Lin arrived to stop the rampage and struck the dragonized Leonardo with a Mountain-Leaning Strike.

• Leonardo woke amid the aftermath of attacking his family and realized Dragon Blood had taken control of him again.
• The 18th Street Gang boss and two bodyguards entered Leonardo’s home, and Leonardo killed them in a burst of violence.
• More than a hundred people had been killed near Leonardo’s residence, and Schneider learned that Li Lin had arrived.
• Li Lin drove a van into the old apartment building, escaped before it exploded, and faced Leonardo as he charged from the flames.
• Leonardo punched through Li Lin’s earthen wall, but Li Lin slowed him with a vortex of stones and rammed him with the Mountain-Leaning Strike.

Caesar chose not to steal Li Lin’s victory and left to pursue other mission objectives, while Li Lin subdued the Dead Servant and waited with the Executive Department. Xia Mi, who had gone to a newsstand, confronted its proprietress Shude Maiyi, whose reaction to Xia Mi’s Golden Eyes suggested she mistook her for an awakened Second-Generation Species.

• Caesar watched Li Lin defeat the Dead Servant, then lowered his rifle rather than claim the kill for himself.
• Caesar returned the rifle to Declan, left the apartment building, and sensed a fading presence in the stairwell.
• Li Lin kept the Dead Servant alive as Professor Schneider had ordered, then called Xia Mi and learned from Aki Shigede that she had gone to swat mosquitoes.
• Aki Shigede gave Li Lin a can of Diet Coke, and he briefly sensed someone watching him before deciding it was likely a false alarm.
• At a newsstand, Xia Mi confronted Shude Maiyi, who recognized the power of Xia Mi’s Golden Eyes and tried to appease her.

Xia Mi learned that people in Japan were planning to revive the White King and decided she had to investigate, while Li Lin tried to distract her from her fear. Their teasing in the armored vehicle was interrupted when Caesar Gattuso signaled that he needed a ride.

• Shude Maiyi admitted to her colleague that Xia Mi had caught her and forced her to hand over intelligence, and she described Xia Mi as feeling like a spoiled princess.
• Xia Mi joined Li Lin on a bench, played Fruit Ninja on his phone, and chatted with him until Professor Schneider ordered the agents to assemble at the temporary base.
• In the armored vehicle, Li Lin pinched Xia Mi’s cheek, and she pounced on him before Aki Shigede’s cough made them stop fooling around.
• Xia Mi worried that the White King and Black King might revive, but decided she had to go to Japan to confirm the situation rather than hide with Li Lin.
• Xia Mi and Li Lin teased and pinched each other as Aki Shigede drove, until Caesar Gattuso messaged her and waved from the roadside, asking to join them.

After the War Practice Class ended, Li Lin and Xia Mi prepared to return to school, where her thoughtful gestures softened his resentment over missing classes. On the drive, Li Lin noticed Xia Mi asleep and tentatively covered her hand with his, unaware that she was pretending to sleep.

• At the hotel garage, Xia Mi gave Li Lin his A+ course certificate and showed him her own passing grade.
• Declan told the temporary agents that the War Practice Class had ended early and the CC1000 Express would run until noon.
• Li Lin and Xia Mi decided to return to school with Caesar and Aki Shigede, who left for the station in a car driven by Aki.
• Xia Mi gave Li Lin a latte she had waited an hour to buy, and he pulled her into the car, letting go of his complaints about the class.
• As Aki drove, Li Lin searched the Night Watchers Forum and found a sensational post about him, then saw Xia Mi asleep against the window.
• Li Lin admired Xia Mi's hand and tentatively placed his hand over her palm while she secretly smiled.

The Snake Qi Eight Clans' Patriarch ordered an urgent investigation after a dangerous bloodline drug from Japan caused deaths in Los Angeles and drew a threat of direct intervention from Cassel College. A week later, Angers invited Li Lin and Xia Mi to spend several months in Tokyo, leaving Xia Mi embarrassed by his teasing about their relationship.

• The Snake Qi Eight Clans' Patriarch told the clan heads that The Ghosts had smuggled a bloodline drug from Japan to Los Angeles, where it caused dozens of deaths and produced a powerful Dead Servant.
• Angers's letter gave the Japan Branch twenty-four hours to investigate or face direct intervention, so the Patriarch ordered searches of underground medical channels, abnormal blood products, and suspicious members.
• Genji Shisheng ordered the Executive Bureau to depart and arranged to invite the four students involved in the incident to the branch as exchange students.
• Li Lin and Caesar became heroes after the War Practice Class, and Caesar publicly acknowledged that Li Lin had achieved more.
• Angers approached Li Lin and Xia Mi in the cafeteria and invited them to spend a few months in Tokyo, then embarrassed Xia Mi by mentioning their relationship and Norton Hall.

Xia Mi explained why she feared Angers, describing revenge as a consuming force, while Li Lin questioned whether she carried a vendetta of her own. After their late-night snack, Xia Mi walked back to the dormitory arm in arm with Li Lin, and they dismissed the rumors about their relationship as baseless.

• Xia Mi told Li Lin that Angers frightened her because revenge consumed those who pursued it, and she refused to explain why she herself would not become an empty shell after taking revenge.
• Li Lin and Xia Mi finished their late-night snack and headed toward the dormitory together.
• Professor Manstein stopped a motorcycle-riding upperclassman with Frigg Bullets, then advised Li Lin and Xia Mi to take precautions while living together.
• Li Lin complained that Fingel and his paparazzi had spread rumors about him and Xia Mi, while Xia Mi said they should ignore the gossip.
• Xia Mi and Li Lin agreed they were perfectly innocent and continued through the summer night with her holding his arm.

Fingel gave Li Lin and Xia Mi temporary access to the Lionheart Society archives and warned Li Lin about his growing interest in the Critical Blood Limit. With Professor Schneider supervising, they entered the archives and began searching its ancient records.

• Fingel delivered Angers’s access card and warned Li Lin that pursuing power from Dragon Blood could turn him into a devil.
• Xia Mi accompanied Li Lin to the Lionheart Society and joked that they were entering a sect’s secret scripture repository.
• Professor Schneider led Li Lin and Xia Mi to the sealed archives and reminded them to handle the century-old materials carefully.
• Li Lin opened the archives with the access card and started reading a study of Dead Servant embryonic serum while Xia Mi searched the shelves.

Li Lin and Xia Mi searched the Lionheart Society archives for the Nibelungen Project and discovered documents describing a technique for pushing hybrids toward the critical bloodline threshold. They gathered materials that might complete the Dragon Blood Refinement Technique, then began sorting them together.

• Li Lin found a research report whose final page said the Nibelungen Project had been approved, while Xia Mi identified a parchment fragment as part of a Heaven-Tier Cultivation Technique.
• Xia Mi explained that the fragment described a Secret Party method for forcibly raising hybrids to the critical bloodline threshold, but said it was too incomplete to cultivate.
• Xia Mi climbed onto Li Lin to reach documents atop the shelves, warned him not to look up, and collected more records while he supported her.
• Xia Mi asked Li Lin to help put on her shoes, but he refused and insisted they were only innocent friends, briefly souring her mood.
• Li Lin and Xia Mi sorted the documents together as his Dragon-Slaying Binding System gained experience in dead languages.

Xia Mi explained the dangers of refining Dragon Blood as she and Li Lin studied the technique together, then tried to persuade him to move into Norton Hall. Their conversation ended when Aki Shigede suggested they live together.

• Xia Mi warned Li Lin that recklessly refining Dragon Blood could destroy his mind and turn him into a Dead Servant, and described the process as a dangerous route toward Blood Washing.
• Xia Mi asked whether Li Lin had learned the technique, and they agreed to keep studying it together while discussing his planned trip to Tokyo.
• Li Lin and Xia Mi studied in the Lionheart Society archives until evening, and Professor Schneider let Li Lin keep his access card.
• Xia Mi repeatedly urged Li Lin to move into Norton Hall, but Li Lin asked why she would not live there herself.
• Aki Shigede appeared behind them and suggested that Li Lin and Xia Mi live together.

Aki Shigede considered Angers’s SS-Rank Japan investigation and the possibility of joining it with Ye Sheng, while Li Lin and Xia Mi’s constant bickering and affection drove her away. Li Lin moved into Norton Hall with Fingel’s help, but Xia Mi showed up at five the next morning to tutor him.

• Aki Shigede recalled Angers’s offer to include her and Ye Sheng in an exchange-student investigation of the Molotov Cocktails in Japan, with Li Lin and Xia Mi supporting the mission.
• Xia Mi and Li Lin argued about living together, and Aki Shigede slipped away after being overwhelmed by their lovey-dovey bickering.
• Li Lin brought pork knuckles to Fingel, who helped him move into Norton Hall and kept the paparazzi away.
• Fingel left after offering to play online games with Li Lin, who wondered about the older student’s troubled past.
• Xia Mi arrived at Li Lin’s room at five in the morning with homework and breakfast to begin tutoring him.

Xia Mi celebrated Li Lin’s success in entering First-Stage Blood Rage by cooking him dinner, then revealed she had recorded a message for him in case she ever disappeared. She left him with a future promise tied to reaching Fourth-Stage Blood Rage, though she did not say so aloud.

• Xia Mi cooked a feast for Li Lin to celebrate his progress with Blood Rage.
• Li Lin explained that First-Stage Blood Rage relied on deep self-hypnosis and using Dragon Blood to strengthen the user while risking their humanity.
• Xia Mi said she had learned the technique by watching Li Lin succeed, then teased him about whether she had written him a love letter.
• Xia Mi revealed she had recorded a message for Li Lin to hear if she ever went missing, keeping her connection to Fourth-Stage Blood Rage unspoken.