Chapter Summaries

Xu Yi arranged for Hart and five hundred elite soldiers to join the Xinfei Merchant Guild Guards Corps, then rejected Luti’s renewed romantic advances at the Magic Research Institute. He tested Avita’s new Magic Array Line Stabilizing Sheath and realized it might enable magic power to be transmitted over unlimited distances.

• Xu Yi had Count Samo authorize Hart and five hundred elite soldiers to join the Xinfei Merchant Guild, and Kennard began verifying their identities and signing their employment contracts.
• At the Magic Research Institute, Xu Yi spoke with Luti about her work with Sanchelli on preset magic and urged her to be patient with the research.
• Luti asked Xu Yi to give her a chance to get closer to him, but Xu Yi reminded her that he was married and warned her to stop or leave the institute.
• Xu Yi asked Avita about her breakthrough in remote magic transmission, and she showed him the Magic Array Line Stabilizing Sheath.
• Xu Yi used the sheath to power a Flame Array remotely and found that it lost almost no magic power, leading him to consider the possibility of unlimited-distance transmission.

Xu Yi and Avita discussed how to extend magic power transmission by regulating and standardizing magic power. Xu Yi assigned Avita a well-funded Magic Crystal refinement project, then urged her to balance her research with her personal life.

• Xu Yi proposed using regulating facilities along Magic Array Lines to restore magic power and adjust its frequency and intensity, exciting Avita with the possibility of transmitting power between Bunta City and Anvilmar City.
• Avita suggested standardizing Magic Crystals and showed Xu Yi magic arrays for extracting and recompressing their power, though the second array was incomplete.
• Xu Yi outlined the research needed to refine Magic Crystals into a uniform, controllable standard and asked Avita whether she could achieve it; she confidently agreed.
• Xu Yi assigned Avita the Magic Crystal standardization project and authorized a special budget of ten thousand gold coins.
• Xu Yi warned Avita not to overwork and asked about her personal life, while Avita said Bella and Labuka were nearly ready to announce their relationship.

Xu Yi arranged to move the Magic Research Institute to Falling Rain Valley and learned that Great Mage Camilla had developed a magic array that could melt iron without heat. The chapter ended with Xu Yi naming it the Transformer Array.

• Avita declined to discuss the man she had fallen for, then discussed magic-power network research with Xu Yi and agreed to consider the Institute's work demands.
• Xu Yi told Avita that the Magic Research Institute would relocate from Bunta City to Falling Rain Valley and promised researchers compensation, improved leave, and regular carriage service.
• Xu Yi visited Great Mage Camilla, who said she would move to Falling Rain Valley but offered no help against the trouble surrounding him unless he asked.
• Great Mage Camilla demonstrated an earth-based magic array that turned an iron rod into cold liquid iron.
• Xu Yi recognized the array's potential for iron and steel production and named it the Transformer Array.

Xu Yi welcomed Hart and five hundred elite soldiers into the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s Guards Corps and sent them to protect Falling Rain Valley, then discussed the guild’s relocation with the small merchant guilds in Sankton. He agreed to hear their concerns about shipping costs and began considering how to make their business contracts more complete.

• Xu Yi and Kennard completed the hiring paperwork for Hart and five hundred elite soldiers, then sent the guards to Falling Rain Valley to establish a base and protect the guild’s facilities.
• Xu Yi discussed Earl Stark’s arrival with Count Samo and then went with Kennard to Sankton Manor to prepare for the relocation.
• More than a hundred small merchant guild presidents gathered in Xu Yi’s office, with Kowach speaking for them and asking why the Xinfei Merchant Guild was moving.
• Xu Yi explained that the guild was relocating its research and production departments to Falling Rain Valley but would keep Sankton Manor.
• Kowach and the other guild presidents raised concerns that delivering components to the new site would increase their shipping costs, and Xu Yi acknowledged their concern and invited them to discuss other requests.
• Xu Yi recognized that their contracts lacked detailed terms and considered finding business professionals to help address the problem.

As Bunta City prepared to welcome Earl Stark as its new city lord, Count Samo assured residents that the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s municipal projects would continue and publicly bound Earl Stark to supporting the guild. Earl Stark arrived while Xu Yi chose to avoid a special introduction, leaving his relationship with the new city lord unresolved.

• Bunta City residents saw armed City Guard soldiers and unusually clean streets as the city prepared for its new lord.
• Count Samo told Naxi that Earl Stark would continue supporting municipal projects and the Xinfei Merchant Guild, framing support for the guild as essential to Bunta City's development.
• Naxi recognized that Count Samo's interview would place Earl Stark under public pressure to support the guild as strongly as his predecessor had.
• Xu Yi told President Cruz that he had asked Count Samo not to specially introduce him or the Xinfei Merchant Guild to Earl Stark.
• Earl Stark's carriages approached as the gathered officials and merchants waited outside Bunta City's northern gate.

Earl Stark challenged Xu Yi for remaining a merchant despite being a noble, and Xu Yi defended the value of trade and nobles’ obligations. Stark revealed that the Kingdom Noble Council was considering whether Xu Yi could keep both identities, leaving him facing a choice between them.

• Earl Stark arrived in Bunta City and disparaged Xu Yi for continuing to work as a merchant after receiving a noble title.
• Xu Yi told Earl Stark that he valued his identity as a merchant and rejected the claim that it demeaned him.
• Xu Yi argued that nobles who enjoyed greater rights had to shoulder greater obligations, and that anyone who shirked their responsibilities was a parasite.
• Earl Stark acknowledged Xu Yi’s general point but accused him of criticizing nobles who failed to fulfill their obligations.
• Earl Stark revealed that the Kingdom Noble Council was deliberating whether Xu Yi could hold both noble and merchant identities and asked which one he would choose if forced.

At a Commercial Association meeting, Xu Yi decided to withdraw the Xinfei Merchant Guild rather than let Earl Stark’s hostility toward him endanger Bunta City’s other merchants. President Cruz and more than a dozen other guild leaders followed, leaving the association existing in name only.

• President Lanke and other merchants warned Xu Yi that confronting Earl Stark could make business difficult, but Xu Yi said the new City Lord had already decided to target him.
• President Lawrence suggested removing the Xinfei Merchant Guild from the association to protect the other merchants, and President Cruz angrily condemned him for forgetting Xu Yi’s past help.
• Xu Yi announced that the Xinfei Merchant Guild would withdraw from the Commercial Association, and President Lanke approved the request.
• President Cruz and more than a dozen other guild leaders also requested to withdraw, leaving President Lanke to acknowledge that the association existed in name only.

Earl Stark targeted the Xinfei Merchant Guild by ordering Xu Yi to stop using Sankton Manor as a factory, while Xu Yi revealed that he had prepared for the move and had allowed Stark to seize on the issue deliberately. Xu Yi and President Cruz agreed to keep working together as Stark’s restrictions threatened both guilds, and Xu Yi ended confident that Stark was following a plan he had already written.

• Earl Stark’s City Lord’s Manor ordered Xu Yi to relocate the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s factory from Sankton Manor, citing kingdom land-use regulations.
• President Cruz accused Earl Stark of targeting Xu Yi, but Xu Yi said he had anticipated the attack and deliberately let the manor issue arise because the guild would eventually move its facilities to Falling Rain Valley.
• Xu Yi asked President Cruz about the Amli Merchant Guild, whose construction projects Earl Stark had halted during his inspection.
• President Cruz said he might move the Amli Merchant Guild out of Bunta City because Earl Stark seemed to be targeting him as well.
• Xu Yi and President Cruz reaffirmed their partnership, and Xu Yi declared that Earl Stark was unknowingly following a script he had prepared.

Freeman struggled with the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s departure and the decline in business under Earl Stark, then decided the Ireland United Merchant Guild should move from Bunta City to Falling Rain Valley. Kowach agreed that leaving might be their only option, though he lamented what their departure would mean for Bunta City.

• Freeman reprimanded Riley for accepting a component that was less than a millimeter out of specification and reflected on how Xu Yi had helped build the Ireland United Merchant Guild.
• Freeman cursed Earl Stark for driving the Xinfei Merchant Guild out of Sankton Manor.
• Kowach reported that halted construction projects had reduced orders for the Ireland United Merchant Guild and worried that Bunta City was stagnating.
• Freeman proposed moving the guild to Falling Rain Valley near the Xinfei Merchant Guild, and Kowach agreed that leaving Bunta City seemed necessary.
• Kowach lamented that the departure of small guilds would damage Bunta City, while Freeman said the city’s decline was Earl Stark’s problem.

The Xinfei Merchant Guild settled into Falling Rain Valley with little disruption after leaving Sankton Manor, and Xu Yi discussed human-elf relations with Elder Elusia and Anise. He explained that an elven merchant guild could not be established under Bunta City's new lord for now, but proposed affiliation as a temporary alternative.

• The Xinfei Merchant Guild's production had shifted to Falling Rain Valley, leaving Sankton Manor primarily as its Mechanical Research Center, so relocating caused little disruption.
• Elder Elusia watched elves and human workers become friends and told Xu Yi that humans were more accepting than she had expected.
• Xu Yi recalled that Anise had once told him, “Human, I don't trust you,” and teased her about seeming aloof when they first met.
• Xu Yi told Elder Elusia that his promise to help establish an elven merchant guild could not proceed as planned because Bunta City had a new city lord with whom he had a poor relationship.
• Elder Elusia recognized that Xu Yi had another option, and he proposed affiliation as a temporary alternative to directly establishing the guild.

Xu Yi discussed the political struggle over Bunta City’s future with Servini, who explained why Earl Stark would remain mayor through the harvest and year-end accounting. She then revealed that Xu Yi had been promoted to viscount and granted a private fief, though its location was not yet disclosed.

• Xu Yi explained that the Night Song Tribe’s Plastic Processing Factory operated under the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s name while a private contract reserved its rights and control for the elves.
• Servini told Xu Yi that the kingdom had not resolved whether agriculture or commerce should take priority, and that Earl Stark’s appointment made Bunta City a test case.
• Xu Yi criticized the decision to let Earl Stark’s policies damage Bunta City, but Servini said the experiment would continue through the autumn harvest and year-end accounting.
• Servini announced that the Kingdom Noble Council had promoted Xu Yi from baron to viscount.
• Servini told Xu Yi that viscounts could hold private fiefs and revealed that the king and Nobles’ Council had approved granting him one.

Servini granted Xu Yi and the Xinfei Merchant Guild a twenty-square-kilometer private domain in Falling Rain Valley in exchange for developing military magic machinery to aid the Lampari Kingdom. Xu Yi accepted the responsibility and vowed that the guild’s industrial spark would spread across the Sains Continent.

• Xu Yi eagerly asked Servini for a private domain near Bunta City, and she revealed that the Nobles' Council had granted him all of Falling Rain Valley, expanded to twenty square kilometers.
• Xu Yi joyfully hugged Servini, then apologized when he realized he had acted too familiarly; their conversation turned awkward after he made a suggestive remark.
• Servini explained that the king and she expected Xu Yi and the Xinfei Merchant Guild to develop more military magic machinery to help defeat the Sark Kingdom.
• Xu Yi argued that the kingdom could not afford expensive military equipment without stronger economic growth, and Servini said the king was promoting industrial development to transform the kingdom.
• Servini called Xu Yi and the guild the spark of the magic industry, and Xu Yi declared that their industry would spread throughout the Lampari Kingdom and the Sains Continent.

The Lampari Kingdom's Northern Garrison reversed the Sark Kingdom's early victory in the Murto mountain range after receiving superior armor, weapons, abundant arrows, and three powerful siege machines. The Greedy Wolf Legion lost its mountain positions, and Shalong Li Nuer was left wondering how the Lampari Kingdom had suddenly become so wealthy.

• The Sark Kingdom's Greedy Wolf Legion seized the Murto mountain range in a surprise assault, driving out the Lampari Kingdom's Northern Garrison.
• After winter, the Northern Garrison counterattacked with new armor and weapons, forcing the Greedy Wolf Legion to surrender two peaks before withdrawing.
• Half a month later, the Northern Garrison used three giant machines to bombard the Greedy Wolf Legion's mountain positions while its archers blocked counterattacks.
• The Northern Garrison pressed its advance and drove the Greedy Wolf Legion out of the entire Murto range after just over a month of fighting.
• Shalong Li Nuer and the Greedy Wolf Legion were bewildered by the Northern Garrison's sudden wealth and military advantage.

Shalong Li Nuer and Aiwei Ruoang learned that the Lampari Kingdom’s Northern Garrison owed its powerful equipment to the Xinfei Merchant Guild, while Sark Kingdom officials considered how to respond. On the mountain front, Leslie Stark tested a Magic-Powered Repeating Crossbow and saw its fifty arrows tear down a tree.

• Shalong Li Nuer considered counterattacking the Northern Garrison, but Aiwei Ruoang persuaded him to wait until they understood its strength.
• A Military Department envoy arrived with orders for the Greedy Wolf Legion to avoid a counterattack and an intelligence report identifying the Xinfei Merchant Guild as the source of the Northern Garrison’s equipment.
• Shalong Li Nuer and Aiwei Ruoang worried that the Northern Garrison could invade Sark Kingdom if it continued receiving weapons from the guild, and discussed the General Staff Office’s possible response.
• Leslie Stark tested a Magic-Powered Repeating Crossbow and fired all fifty arrows into a tree, breaking its trunk and leaving him impressed by Xu Yi’s invention.

Earl Stark’s efforts to increase Bunta City’s agricultural output backfired when he tried to revoke the Cantona Chamber of Commerce’s farmland leases. His order provoked businesses and farmers alike, leaving him bewildered by the opposition.

• Earl Stark discovered that all arable land in Bunta City was already cultivated, preventing him from increasing grain output by expanding farmland.
• Earl Stark ordered the Cantona Chamber of Commerce to return the fields it had leased from 746 farming households, claiming its agreements with Count Samo were void.
• The Cantona Chamber of Commerce publicized Earl Stark’s order, and chambers of commerce across Bunta City and nearby cities challenged their agreements with the City Lord’s Manor.
• Earl Stark learned that 73 chambers of commerce had agreements with the manor and realized that canceling them could bring Bunta City to a standstill.
• Farmers rejected the manor’s notices that they would regain their fields, and Earl Stark was left wondering whether they no longer wanted farmland.

Administrative Officer Moya surveyed farmers in Mexilan Village about the city lord’s effort to suppress commerce and promote agriculture, but Sakeqi condemned the policy and refused to return to farming. Moya realized the farmers’ opposition was unanimous and, seeing three more farmers approach, hurried over to continue the survey.

• Sakeqi told Moya that farming could barely feed his family, while other work offered far better wages.
• Sakeqi blamed the City Lord’s Manor’s policy for driving merchant guilds away and costing his son a well-paid job.
• Sakeqi argued that Bunta City had already brought nearly all its farmland into cultivation and depended on Xinfei Merchant Guild machinery to produce its grain.
• Sakeqi left for a meeting in Korol Village, and the other Mexilan Village farmers scattered when Moya tried to question them.
• Moya concluded that the farmers he had surveyed opposed Earl Stark’s policy, then hurried to meet three approaching farmers.

Cantona proposed returning the farmland to Korol Village farmers in name while continuing to cultivate it under their old agreement, allowing them to comply with the City Lord’s Manor’s order without giving up their current work. Sakeqi agreed and left to tell his unemployed son Quirick about a possible Xinfei Merchant Guild job in Falling Rain Valley.

• Sakeqi arrived at the Cantona Chamber of Commerce office carrying a shovel, and the farmers discussed their opposition to returning to fieldwork.
• Cantona explained that the City Lord’s Manor had ordered his chamber to return the subleased farmland, and the gathered farmers unanimously objected.
• Cantona proposed returning the land to the farmers on paper while continuing to cultivate it under their previous agreement, and the farmers supported the plan.
• Sakeqi asked Cantona to help his son Quirick find work at the Xinfei Merchant Guild, but Cantona suggested Quirick seek a product promoter job in Falling Rain Valley.
• Sakeqi hurried home to send Quirick to Falling Rain Valley and told Cantona to fill in his name on the contract.

Quirick returned to Falling Rain Valley and saw how the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s growth had brought factories and shops there while Bunta City declined under its new city lord’s policies. He went to seek work with Xu Yi and unexpectedly spotted the president approaching with a group of people.

• Quirick saw the Sandir Merchant Guild and many other businesses operating outside Falling Rain Valley after relocating from Bunta City.
• Quirick observed the valley’s expanding factories, improved roads, and streetlamps, then reflected on how the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s departure had left parts of Bunta City dark and declining.
• Quirick asked a Xinfei Merchant Guild worker where he could apply to become a Product Promoter for a planned facility in Bunta City.
• The worker directed Quirick to the guild’s office and mentioned that the guild might develop a Magic Locomotive to shorten the trip between the valley and Bunta City.
• Quirick and the worker saw Xu Yi emerge from a nearby road with a group of people.

Xu Yi discussed investing in factories in the Rulson Kingdom with Newman, who hoped to secure Xinfei Merchant Guild technology and reduce the cost of importing machinery. Their conversation was interrupted by Quirick applying for an unadvertised job, and Xu Yi agreed to discuss local hiring with President Cruz.

• Newman praised Xu Yi’s Industrial Base and urged him to bring Xinfei factories and production technology to the Rulson Kingdom, while Xu Yi offered to prioritize factory investment there without promising technology transfers.
• Newman reflected on how local production could cut transport costs, drawing on the Rulson Kingdom’s savings and road-building progress after acquiring cement production technology.
• Quirick rushed up to Xu Yi and applied for a job after Cantona told him about the opening, so Xu Yi sent him to the Guild Office Center for further discussion.
• Newman asked Xu Yi to persuade President Cruz to hire workers locally in the Rulson Kingdom, and Xu Yi agreed to find a chance to speak with him.

Newman tried to lure Xu Yi and the Xinfei Merchant Guild to the Rulson Kingdom, then negotiated ways to expand their business cooperation. Xu Yi rejected relocation and technology transfer for now but proposed starting with a household magic machinery factory, leaving open the possibility of a future joint venture for farmland machinery.

• Newman invited Xu Yi to move the Xinfei Merchant Guild to the Rulson Kingdom, but Xu Yi rejected the offer and said he hoped circumstances would never force him to leave Lampari Kingdom.
• Newman discussed a new order for fifty thousand farmland magic machines and suggested building a production factory in the Rulson Kingdom or transferring the manufacturing technology.
• Xu Yi rejected a technology transfer and cautioned that a farmland machinery factory would require skilled workers, many of whom were dwarves, prompting Newman to consult King Willy about the issue.
• Xu Yi proposed first building a household magic machinery factory to produce magic fans and rice cookers with the Rulson Merchant Guild, and Newman approved the plan.
• Xu Yi suggested that successful cooperation could lead to a joint venture producing farmland magic machinery, leaving Newman wondering whether the technology might eventually be shared.