Chapter Summaries

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.