Chapter Summaries

The Wingspan completed most of its long-distance cruising test as Xu Yi and Nevall discussed its fuel use and strict maintenance standards. When they spotted an attack on Black Rice Port, Xu Yi ordered the ship to race toward the burning port.

• The Wingspan sailed north and then east from Karasga Island, reaching the coastline after a day at sea.
• Nevall reported that the ship had consumed about seventy-three tonnes of standard Magic Crystal, and Xu Yi judged its fuel use acceptable.
• Nevall reported loose screws and other minor faults aboard the ship, and Xu Yi ordered penalties for the workers responsible.
• Xu Yi spotted smoke and heard an explosion near the coast, then ordered Nevall to take the Wingspan to maximum speed toward Black Rice Port.
• Xu Yi saw armed attackers killing people in Black Rice Port as fireballs struck the port and set it ablaze.

Xu Yi’s Xinfei Merchant Guild Guard Corps crushed an orc attack on Black Rice Port, but nine workers died, prompting Xu Yi to demand compensation and seek answers from the West-Garrison Army. He revealed that the attackers were orcs from the Sark Kingdom, leaving the deputy commander shocked.

• Xu Yi stayed aboard the Wingspan while Nevall led a hundred Xinfei guards in Small Mana Speedboats to repel the attackers with arrows and explosive weapons.
• After the battle, Xu Yi found that the attackers were orcs and discovered that nine workers, including five Amli Merchant Guild employees, had been killed.
• Xu Yi ordered the port manager to compensate all nine workers’ families equally and personally promised to speak with President Cruz.
• Xu Yi drove two orc bodies to the West-Garrison Army camp and told the deputy commander that the attack had come from orcs of the Sark Kingdom.
• The deputy commander examined the bodies and reacted with shock.

After Admiral Landis dismissed Xu Yi’s warning about Sark Kingdom forces in the Black Rice Wasteland, Xu Yi decided he could not rely on the West-Garrison Army to protect the region. He returned to Black Rice City and asked the four guilds’ representatives what defenses would be needed to control the wasteland and repel a Sark Kingdom invasion.

• Xu Yi brought evidence of Sark Kingdom involvement in the Black Rice Port attack to Admiral Landis and proposed stronger cooperation, but Landis showed little interest.
• Xu Yi concluded that Queen Servini’s tighter control of the kingdom and the West-Garrison Army’s limited mandate and funding explained Landis’s reluctance.
• Xu Yi drove back to Black Rice City and noticed that its defenses were divided among the four merchant guilds.
• Xu Yi summoned the four guilds’ representatives and asked what force would be needed to control the Black Rice Wasteland and repel a Sark Kingdom invasion.

Xu Yi defended his plan to expand the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s Guards Corps and take control of the Black Rice Wasteland, insisting that new military technology had made old assumptions about strength obsolete. As he and Kennard traveled along the unfinished Slu Road into the Moon Shadow Tribe’s forest, Xu Yi prepared to meet Elder Lysania, hoping she would not pressure him to choose an elven woman.

• Kennard questioned Xu Yi’s plan to spend millions of gold coins on the Guards Corps and eventually confront the Sark Kingdom, but Xu Yi said the guild was a tool for changing life on the continent.
• Kennard warned that the guild could maintain only five thousand guards, but Xu Yi argued that modern military technology could let a hundred men defeat Count Wellen’s thirty thousand.
• Xu Yi and Kennard rode along the unfinished Slu Road, where workers from several regions were building the route toward Kuraka City.
• The Mana Sedan entered Dreammist Forest, where the Moon Shadow Tribe had permitted humans to build the road and cut down ancient trees.
• Xu Yi explained that the elves needed to integrate with human society and worried that Elder Lysania would again pressure him to choose an elven beauty.

Xu Yi inspected the Medium Mana Crane and Elder Lysania’s rapidly built plant roadbed, then insisted that Slu Road remain under his control. He offered to recruit and equip a thousand Moon Shadow Tribe warriors in exchange for her agreement, and her interest was stirred by the proposal.

• Xu Yi met Elder Lysania at the Slu Road construction site and showed her the Medium Mana Crane, which could lift more than fifty tons.
• Elder Lysania showed Xu Yi the plant roadbed her elves had built through Dreammist Forest to the top of the cliff, and he tested its smooth surface in his Mana Sedan.
• Xu Yi proposed keeping both the plant roadbed and the earth-and-stone roadbed, with Slu Road branching to both routes.
• Elder Lysania used Space-Isolation Magic to speak privately with Xu Yi, who told her he opposed giving the Moon Shadow Tribe the power to sever the road.
• Xu Yi offered to recruit one thousand Moon Shadow Tribe warriors into his Private Guard and equip them with Individual Military Magic Machinery they could keep when they retired, causing Elder Lysania’s eyes to light up.

Xu Yi recruited a separate, multiracial force of personal guards while focusing on the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s long-running Fire-Type Mana Engine project. The engine’s success promised extreme speeds for magic locomotives and airships, and Heinz began to suspect Xu Yi had ambitions reaching far beyond the Lampari Kingdom.

• Hart and Heinz oversaw Xu Yi’s strict personal-guard recruitment, which sought human, elven, and dwarven guards, with orcs also likely to be recruited.
• Heinz questioned Xu Yi about forming a separate guard force, but Xu Yi dismissed his concerns and directed his attention to a device at the research center.
• Xu Yi revealed that the device was the newly developed Fire-Type Mana Engine, and Canby confirmed its theoretical potential for machinery to exceed a thousand kilometers per hour.
• Xu Yi said the engine could let magic locomotives reach at least four hundred kilometers per hour and argued that travel across the larger empires would require greater ambition.
• Heinz recalled the multiracial guard recruitment and suspected Xu Yi’s plans were far more ambitious than he had imagined.

Xu Yi and Queen Servini enjoyed a summer visit to his private beach, where he flew her down from the cliff at her request. Servini then revealed she wanted to buy a hundred Mana Airships and proposed spreading the payment over time, leaving Xu Yi to consider installment payments.

• Servini questioned Xu Yi about opening his fief to visitors, and they teased each other about her vacation and their appearances.
• Servini asked Xu Yi to carry her down from the cliff, and he flew them to the beach while she delighted in the experience.
• Xu Yi recommended the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s Magic Airship so Servini could fly whenever she wanted.
• Servini said she intended to order a hundred Mana Airships, then explained that the Lampari Kingdom could not pay thirty million gold coins at once.
• Servini proposed stretching the purchase over time and asked Xu Yi about the installment plan used by the Amli Merchant Guild.

Xu Yi and Servini negotiated installment payments for a hundred Mana Airships, and Servini offered Xinfei command over the West-Garrison Army in exchange for funding its operations. Xu Yi accepted after she expanded the army’s scope to matters involving the Stantin Duchy.

• Xu Yi considered Servini’s installment proposal and concluded the Lampari Kingdom could likely afford payments as its magic machinery industry generated growing revenues.
• Servini proposed paying for the hundred Mana Airships over twenty years, with smaller payments initially and larger ones as the kingdom’s finances improved.
• Xu Yi questioned what Xinfei would gain, and Servini offered to fund and supply the West-Garrison Army to secure the Black Rice Wasteland while Xinfei provided the money.
• Servini offered Xinfei full command of a portion of the West-Garrison Army for matters concerning the Black Rice Wasteland.
• Xu Yi refused to cover the army’s expenses without meaningful authority, so Servini added that the army could take his orders in matters involving the Stantin Duchy.
• Xu Yi agreed to Servini’s terms.

After Servini returned to the Lampari Kingdom, the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s booming profits enabled Xu Yi to equip the West-Garrison Army and support construction of reinforced-concrete fortifications along the Black Rice Wasteland’s border with the Sark Kingdom. The defenses secured the wasteland and benefited Lampari, but Xu Yi was more concerned about another place that remained unstable.

• Xu Yi entertained Servini in the Stantin Duchy, and she decided to buy a Mana Airship with her own money before returning to Lampari.
• The Xinfei Merchant Guild earned more than five million gold coins in June, while Xu Yi considered offering installment payments for Mana Sedans and supplying Military Magic Machinery to the West-Garrison Army.
• The West-Garrison Army entered the Black Rice Wasteland and was welcomed by the orcs, who had come to accept the Xinfei Merchant Guild and other human businesses.
• The West-Garrison Army, the Xinfei Merchant Guild, and the Amli Merchant Guild built over thirty kilometers of reinforced-concrete fortifications along the Sark Kingdom border in one month.
• Xu Yi accepted the three-million-gold-coin cost of the fortifications to secure Lampari’s approval and stabilize the wasteland, while another place remained dangerously unstable.

As Count Wellen and Angklu expanded with the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s support, Xu Yi took a break from his work to play with Freya and release the butterflies she found trapped. The Grand Duke of Stantin then offered Xu Yi a larger title and a fief carved from Count Wellen’s territory, and Xu Yi accepted the offer despite recognizing the trap.

• Count Wellen crushed several southern lords, while Angklu aggressively expanded his territory with the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s support.
• Xu Yi made a butterfly net and took Freya to the grove, where she asked him to release the butterflies he had caught.
• Liss told Xu Yi that Kennard had brought envoys from the Grand Duke of Stantin.
• The envoys announced that the grand duke had raised Xu Yi from viscount to count and offered him a new fief.
• Xu Yi recognized that the fief lay in territory Count Wellen had occupied, but he accepted the offer.

Xu Yi accepted the Grand Duke of Stantin’s grants of Count Wellen’s territory, while Count Wellen withdrew peacefully and expanded his holdings by conquering neighboring lords. As the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s influence over the duchy became clear, Xu Yi and Stille discussed Servini’s feelings and the kingdom’s succession.

• Xu Yi accepted the Grand Duke of Stantin’s grant, and Count Wellen withdrew his troops and administrators without protest as the Xinfei Merchant Guild took control.
• Count Wellen conquered neighboring lords after each grant, while the Grand Duke granted Xu Yi more land; Count Wellen even cleared the territory between Xu Yi’s holdings, joining them into one stretch.
• Count Wellen expanded his territory to nearly twenty thousand square kilometers and raised his army to more than fifty thousand soldiers, leading people to see the Xinfei Merchant Guild—and Xu Yi—as the real power shaping the duchy’s future.
• Xu Yi and Stille walked along the lively beach, where Stille said Anvilmar City seemed backward compared with Bunta City.
• Stille told Xu Yi that she believed Servini had feelings for him, and Xu Yi insisted they could never be together.
• Stille mentioned newspaper discussions about the Lampari Kingdom’s heir to the throne, prompting Xu Yi to consider the succession.

As the Lampari Kingdom debated Queen Servini’s need to marry and secure an heir, Xu Yi and Stille were ambushed by the powerful Great Mage Ashura. Ashura emerged from a spatial rift and declared that he intended to kill Xu Yi.

• People in the Lampari Kingdom urged Queen Servini to marry and have a child who could inherit the throne.
• Xu Yi recalled Servini’s frustration about pressure to find a prince consort, then joked with Stille about her and the elves.
• A sudden waterspout struck Xu Yi and Stille, and Xu Yi shielded them while trying to find their unseen attacker.
• Two more torrents attacked, and Xu Yi realized that a powerful mage was remotely controlling them.
• Ashura appeared through a spatial rift, mocked Xu Yi for choosing business over magic, and prepared to kill him as Stille’s Magic Communication Box lit up.

Xu Yi and Stille were ambushed by Rena, a Great Mage hired by the Grand Duke of Stantin, but survived his attacks with Elder Elusia’s Azure Guardians. Great Mage Camilla arrived and overwhelmed Rena; Xu Yi stopped her from killing him so he could serve as a live combat-testing target.

• Rena trapped Xu Yi and Stille inside a Spatial Isolation Array and attacked them with fire magic.
• Xu Yi and Stille pretended to give up, then used their Azure Guardians to withstand Rena’s Deepflame Fireballs.
• Rena revealed that the Grand Duke of Stantin had hired him for five hundred thousand gold coins to assassinate Xu Yi.
• Great Mage Camilla struck Rena with Ragnarok's Judgment and revealed that she had gained an understanding of spatial laws.
• Xu Yi persuaded Great Mage Camilla to spare Rena temporarily as a live target for combat testing.

Xu Yi offered Rena a chance to go free if he survived ten minutes of attacks from the Xinfei Merchant Guild Guard Corps. The Guard Corps’ magic weapons rapidly drained Rena’s mana, and he was left horrified with less than a third of it after fewer than five minutes.

• Rena watched Xu Yi and Great Mage Camilla, while Stille used a Magic Communication Box to summon the Xinfei Merchant Guild Guard Corps.
• Xu Yi promised to release Rena if he withstood the Guard Corps’ attacks for ten minutes, and Rena accepted, confident that ordinary soldiers could not harm him.
• The Guard Corps’ magic repeating crossbows forced Rena to change from shielding himself to burning the arrows with fire magic as his mana rapidly drained.
• The guards switched to Single-Soldier Magic Rocket Launchers, and their rockets exploded against Rena’s protective shield with the force of powerful spells.
• After fewer than five minutes of attacks, Rena had less than a third of his mana remaining and realized the soldiers’ weapons had cost him more than resisting Camilla’s forbidden spell.

Rena endured the Xinfei Merchant Guild Guard Corps’ increasingly powerful attacks until Xu Yi offered him a choice between death and working for the guild. Rena questioned whether he had any real choice, leaving his decision unresolved.

• Rena’s Magic Barrier blocked three powerful rockets from a sixteen-launcher salvo, but the explosions injured him and left him with less than a fifth of his mana.
• Xu Yi warned Rena that the final attack would be much stronger and asked whether he wanted to avoid death.
• Rena revealed that his employer had offered him five hundred thousand gold coins to assassinate Xu Yi.
• Xu Yi offered Rena a legitimate job paying at least ten thousand gold coins a year, with research materials provided.
• Camilla and Stille objected to hiring the man who had tried to kill them, but Xu Yi insisted and presented Rena with the choice of death or working for him.
• Rena bitterly asked Xu Yi whether he had any choice.

Count Wellen continued his war against the Grand Duke of Stantin with support from the Xinfei Merchant Guild, while Xu Yi secured control over half the population of every territory Wellen conquered. After Wellen left, Elder Lysania ordered Xu Yi to strip.

• Count Wellen's army captured more than a third of the Grand Duke of Stantin's territory in half a month, prompting the duchy's lords to rally behind him.
• Count Wellen submitted his battle plan and supply requests to Xu Yi, asking for Magic Rocket Launchers to overcome the grand duke's defenses.
• Xu Yi agreed to provide support but negotiated for half the population of every territory Count Wellen conquered, and Count Wellen signed the agreement.
• Count Wellen left Xu Yi's private manor after discussing future cooperation.
• Xu Yi returned to his bedroom, where Elder Elusia and Elder Lysania watched him, and Elder Lysania ordered him to strip.

Elder Elusia and Elder Lysania gave Xu Yi the Elf Race’s secret magic pattern augmentation to help him survive future danger, and he demonstrated exceptional control over space magic. The chapter ended when Elder Lysania unexpectedly asked Xu Yi to mate with her.

• Elder Elusia and Elder Lysania inscribed magic patterns on Xu Yi’s body, then had him test the augmentation by casting a Devouring Sphere.
• Xu Yi maintained the Devouring Sphere for over two minutes before carefully dismissing it, astonishing both elders with his magical control.
• Elder Lysania explained that the augmentation could reduce the mana cost of Spatial Teleportation, potentially letting Xu Yi escape at least a kilometer away.
• Elder Lysania frowned in thought, then asked Xu Yi whether he wanted to mate with her.

Xu Yi resisted Elder Lysania and Elder Elucia’s demand that he choose an elven girl to have children with, while Stille urged him to consider Anise and address Vivian’s feelings. He remained unsure, but began to reconsider choosing Anise before the elders’ deadline arrived.

• Elder Lysania asked Xu Yi to mate with her, but he refused and explained that he regarded her and Elder Elucia as respected elders.
• Elder Lysania told Xu Yi he had nearly a year to choose an elven girl before she and Elder Elucia chose for him.
• Stille suggested Anise as someone Xu Yi could choose without feeling like he was being treated as a stud.
• Xu Yi said he regarded Anise and Vivian as little sisters, and Stille told him that Vivian feared he no longer cared for her.
• Stille said Anise genuinely wanted to be with Xu Yi and supported his choice, while Xu Yi remained hesitant.

After Grand Duke Wellen took control of the Stantin Duchy with Xu Yi’s support, Xu Yi explained that he backed both Wellen and Viscount Angklu to prevent further war and protect the population. Angklu agreed to work with Xu Yi to improve the duchy, while Wellen suggested that Xu Yi should become a king.

• Count Wellen defeated the Grand Duke of Stantin, who died in the burning ducal residence, and became Grand Duke Wellen.
• Grand Duke Wellen demanded that the duchy’s lords disarm, attacking those who refused except for Viscount Angklu, whom Xu Yi also supported.
• Xu Yi told Angklu and Grand Duke Wellen that he needed them to cooperate because further warfare would harm the duchy and cost workers.
• Angklu and Grand Duke Wellen argued over their armies until Xu Yi ordered them to sit down and talk.
• Xu Yi urged Angklu and Grand Duke Wellen to work with the Xinfei Merchant Guild to make the duchy’s cities prosper like Bunta City.
• Grand Duke Wellen said Xu Yi should become a king rather than take the title of Grand Duke of Stantin.

Xu Yi chose Anise as his elven companion after she freely agreed to enter into a union with him, then visited her in the Falling Rain Forest. He found Anise and his daughter Freya happily living among the elves, but remained uneasy about Anise’s innocence and unfamiliarity with human customs.

• Xu Yi rejected the idea of becoming king, agreed with Angklu and Grand Duke Wellen on plans for stability in the Stantin Duchy, and inspected the Black Rice City and northern defenses.
• Xu Yi drove into the Lampari Kingdom and flew to the Falling Rain Forest, where Anise greeted him with a kiss.
• Xu Yi recalled that Anise had willingly agreed to become his companion and that Elder Elusia and Elder Lysania had accepted his choice.
• Anise told Xu Yi that Freya enjoyed exploring the forest and had played on a big black bear, while Xu Yi was reassured that Anise kept her safe.
• At the Night Song Tribe’s illusion array, Anise asked when they would mate, and Xu Yi told her to learn about human customs from Vivian or Stille.