Chapter Summaries

Xu Yi negotiated with Elder Elusia to expand the Night Song Tribe’s tempered-plastic production, pushing for performance-based pay and offering guild managers to reform the factory. After their talks, Elder Elusia gave him an illustrated book about unions between elves and humans, leaving him startled.

• Xu Yi and Anise persuaded Freya to leave the Falling Rain Forest after promising to bring her back often.
• Xu Yi discussed the Night Song Tribe’s tempered-plastic order with Elder Elusia and urged changes to the factory’s management and pay system.
• Elder Elusia agreed to try reforming the factory within six months, then accepted Xu Yi’s offer to send guild managers to help.
• Xu Yi proposed new machinery, outside recruitment, and joint investment to increase the factory’s capacity, and Elder Elusia said she would consider the options.
• After dinner, Elder Elusia gave Xu Yi an illustrated elven book about unions between elves and humans, which shocked him.

Xu Yi returned to Bunta City for its internationalizing circuit bicycle race and met with local bicycle guild presidents to propose a professional competition. The presidents began to grasp that the event would showcase the best riders and bicycles, setting up a direct contest with the Xinfei Cycling Team.

• Xu Yi arrived in Bunta City and met Mayor Count Rivell, who welcomed him and discussed the city’s development.
• Xu Yi explained that the autumn circuit race had drawn international entrants and would allow team entries for the first time.
• The Xinfei Merchant Guild announced that its cycling team’s results would not count this year and challenged other teams to catch up before next autumn.
• Count Rivell brought Xu Yi together with presidents of Bunta City’s bicycle merchant guilds to discuss closer cooperation.
• Xu Yi proposed a professional bicycle competition in which teams would race under their guild names using bicycles made by their own guilds, and the presidents recognized its potential.

Xu Yi organized a professional bicycle race to promote the industry and help Bunta City’s bicycle makers build their brands. After learning that a Drake Duchy delegation had arrived, he went to the Amuli Grand Hotel and met Princess Caroline, who secretly asked him to help her duchy.

• Xu Yi explained that he wanted the bicycle race to promote bicycles and support Bunta City’s manufacturers, and the merchant guild presidents agreed to back it.
• City Lord Rivell asked Xu Yi whether he could help other magic industries grow, but Xu Yi said their products were not yet ready to compete with Xinfei machinery.
• Xu Yi learned from Rivell that a team representing a Drake Duchy merchant guild had arrived and was staying at the Amuli Grand Hotel.
• Xu Yi drove to the New District with Freya, Anise, Liss, and Linda and met Princess Caroline in a room on the hotel’s top floor.
• Princess Caroline told Xu Yi that she had come secretly to ask for his help, warning that the Drake Duchy faced a hopeless situation if he refused.

Princess Caroline asked Xu Yi to help the Drake Duchy recover from defective magic machinery that could cost it more than five million gold coins. Xu Yi agreed in exchange for renewed cooperation, then rejected Caroline’s offer of herself and told her that a woman’s soul could not be bought for money.

• Xu Yi blamed Princess Caroline and the Drake Duchy for ignoring his warnings and breaking their agreement with the Xinfei Merchant Guild.
• Princess Caroline explained that design flaws in the Drake Duchy’s magic fans and refrigerators had caused accidents, leaving the duchy facing compensation and factory repairs costing over five million gold coins.
• Caroline tried to persuade Xu Yi with flirtation and offered herself as compensation, but Xu Yi refused.
• Xu Yi agreed to help if the Drake Duchy cooperated earnestly with the Xinfei Merchant Guild from then on.
• When Caroline again suggested that she could be part of the deal, Xu Yi said no woman’s body was worth five million gold coins, then told her no woman’s soul could be bought for that sum.

At Bunta City’s bicycle race, Xu Yi explained how the event promoted the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s brand and warned Princess Caroline that the Drake Duchy would need to rebuild its damaged reputation. He agreed to help, while Caroline’s questions about Xu Yi’s new elf wife Anise revealed her jealousy.

• More than sixty thousand people entered Bunta City’s bicycle race, whose unusually large prizes drew crowds from across the region.
• Xu Yi told Mayor Rivell that the race’s publicity and positive image made it worthwhile advertising for the Xinfei Merchant Guild despite its high cost.
• Xu Yi warned Princess Caroline that the previous incident had damaged the Drake Duchy’s brand image, and he agreed to help restore it.
• Princess Caroline clung to Xu Yi’s arm and teased him about making up for his losses, while Xu Yi complained about the duchy’s breach of their agreement.
• After Mayor Rivell left to oversee the opening ceremony, Princess Caroline asked about the elf girl she had seen in Xu Yi’s room, and Xu Yi introduced Anise as his newly married elf wife.

The Xinfei Merchant Guild announced a professional bicycle racing series with a potential annual champion’s prize exceeding fifty thousand gold coins, prompting Great Mage Camilla and Great Mage Truchi to question why a cyclist could earn more than they did. Xu Yi explained the prize’s advertising purpose and his guild’s limited contribution, then turned the discussion to their Fire-Type Mana Engine research in Falling Rain Valley.

• The Xinfei Cycling Team swept the first five places in the Bunta City Road Bicycle Race, and the Xinfei Merchant Guild announced that it would launch a professional bicycle series next year.
• The announcement promised the series’ Annual Overall Champion Cyclist potentially more than fifty thousand gold coins, startling readers and provoking Great Mage Camilla and Great Mage Truchi.
• Xu Yi explained that the prize would be funded by several merchant guilds and served as advertising, with the Xinfei Merchant Guild contributing less than eight thousand gold coins at most.
• Xu Yi told Great Mage Camilla that he planned a larger Mana Sedan racing competition, and she eagerly said she would enter.
• At the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s Falling Rain Valley research institute, Xu Yi and the two Great Mages prepared to continue research on the Fire-Type Mana Engine, whose main goal under Great Mage Truchi was increasing power output.

Great Mage Truchi and Great Mage Camilla tested a powerful but unstable Fire-Type Mana Engine, impressing Xu Yi with its speed and potential. At a joint-venture factory, Princess Caroline learned that developing new magic machinery required patient work and a solid industrial foundation.

• Great Mage Camilla tested Great Mage Truchi’s Fire-Type Mana Engine, crashed the experimental chassis, and flew back unharmed.
• Xu Yi estimated that the engine had accelerated Camilla to well over one hundred kilometers per hour and discussed its potential and shortcomings with Truchi.
• Xu Yi visited the joint-venture Magic Fan factory in Falling Rain Valley, where Princess Caroline was studying a Magic-Powered Lathe and a bearing bridge schematic.
• Princess Caroline admitted that her people had underestimated the difficulty of developing magic machinery after their own Bearing Bridge Section caused faulty fans.
• Xu Yi urged Princess Caroline to build a solid foundation and advance gradually, citing Manager Fiss’s long-running work on Automatic Start-Stop Technology.

After securing cooperation with the Drake Duchy, Xu Yi left Bunta City with Freya and the others for Anvilmar City to visit Stille. As they approached the congested city gates, Freya teased him about Princess Caroline, while Xu Yi worried about seeing Stille again with Anise at his side.

• Xu Yi finalized a preliminary agreement with Princess Caroline to bring the Drake Duchy's magic machinery factories under Xinfei Merchant Guild standards and sent her to the Stantin Duchy to address product quality problems.
• Princess Caroline kissed Xu Yi goodbye and told him she would be waiting for him.
• Xu Yi drove Liss, Linda, Freya, and Anise from Bunta City to Anvilmar City, where Freya said she missed her mom and asked whether Xu Yi missed her too.
• Freya suggested Xu Yi might not miss her mom because Princess Caroline was pretty, and Anise reassured her that Stille came first in Xu Yi's heart.
• Xu Yi grew uneasy about meeting Stille with Anise, then noticed heavy traffic at Anvilmar City's gates and considered proposing that Servini abolish entry taxes.

Xu Yi proposed ways for Servini to reform the city entry tax and improve poorer cities through targeted development. The chapter ended as Servini began reading his booklet on energy standardization in the magic industry.

• Xu Yi urged Servini to abolish the city entry tax, but she explained that many cities depended on its revenue and lacked Bunta City's advantages.
• Xu Yi suggested testing the tax reform in selected cities, then extending it and subsidizing places that could not afford the change.
• Xu Yi proposed developing Bateru City's hot springs into a tourism industry and using its geothermal resources.
• Xu Yi said improved engineering magic machinery could help build roads through the Northwestern Province, and Servini challenged him about delays in delivering her hundred mana airships.
• Xu Yi handed Servini a booklet titled "On the Important Role of Energy Standardization in the Magic Industry System."

Xu Yi explained to Servini how energy standardization would benefit the Xinfei Merchant Guild and urged her to establish a Royal House energy business to control standardized magic crystals. Servini agreed to consider the plan and Xu Yi proposed that the Lampari Kingdom and his guild jointly establish the continent’s first Magic Recharging Station.

• Servini questioned how energy standardization would benefit the Xinfei Merchant Guild, and Xu Yi explained that uniform magic crystals would reduce design and production costs.
• Xu Yi told Servini that requiring standardized crystals had caused the guild’s household magic machinery sales to fall thirteen percent because customers found the crystals inconvenient to obtain.
• Xu Yi admitted that he had deliberately tested whether his guild could promote energy standardization alone, and Servini agreed to consider supporting it.
• Xu Yi urged Servini to establish a Royal House-controlled energy guild, arguing that controlling energy would give the Lampari Kingdom lasting power.
• Xu Yi explained that refined, high-purity standardized magic crystals could be controlled despite raw magic crystals being widespread, then asked Servini to jointly establish the first Magic Recharging Station.

Xu Yi returned to Anvilmar City and learned that Stille and the others had gone to the New Moon Grand Theater. Great Mage Eisenka arrived with a modified Mana Sedan, revealed its powerful Fire-Type engine, and drove it toward pedestrians while preventing Xu Yi from gathering mana; the chapter ended as Eisenka pressed another button.

• Xu Yi reached the residence and learned that Stille had gone shopping with Anise and the others, planning to meet him at the New Moon Grand Theater.
• Xu Yi recalled how Stille had funded the theater herself through the New Moon Merchant Guild and loans from the Chimera Chamber of Commerce.
• Great Mage Eisenka arrived and asked Xu Yi about his plans for Mana Sedan racing and the Xinfei Merchant Guild's Fire-Type Mana Engine.
• Eisenka invited Xu Yi to ride in his modified Pure Black Mana Sedan, and Xu Yi agreed after noticing its unusual controls.
• Eisenka activated the Fire-Type engine, sent the car speeding through a busy street, and disrupted Xu Yi's mana as they approached a pedestrian.
• Eisenka pressed another button on the console just as the Mana Sedan was about to hit someone.

Xu Yi criticized Great Mage Eisenka’s Mana Flying Car as unsafe, too costly, and too difficult to mass-produce. He refused a formal Xinfei Merchant Guild partnership but offered to help Eisenka personally, leaving the project’s development dependent on their proposed arrangement.

• Great Mage Eisenka took Xu Yi in the Mana Flying Car on a flight from Anvilmar City, and Xu Yi reprimanded him for risking pedestrians’ safety.
• Xu Yi argued that the car’s high cost and complex eighth-level flight array made mass production impractical, while Eisenka acknowledged that only three advanced mages had learned to inscribe it.
• After landing west of the city, Eisenka invited the Xinfei Merchant Guild to join his development project in exchange for a share of future profits.
• Xu Yi rejected the guild partnership, saying the project offered no worthwhile returns, but offered to provide Eisenka with free technical support personally if Eisenka shared the car’s technical information and secured patents.
• Eisenka asked why Xu Yi preferred to work with him personally, and Xu Yi replied that he had no confidence in the Mana Flying Car’s future returns.

Xu Yi agreed to help Great Mage Eisenka develop the Mana Flying Car, then joined Stille and Anise at the New Moon Grand Theater, where Stille explained why she could accept Xu Yi taking Anise as another partner. As Stille pointed toward the stage and mentioned another woman who wanted to marry him, Xu Yi recognized that a new complication awaited.

• Great Mage Eisenka accepted Xu Yi's offer to cooperate with him personally on the Mana Flying Car project, and Xu Yi decided to mention Eisenka's flight over Anvilmar City to Servini.
• Xu Yi struggled to enter the New Moon Grand Theater and found Stille in an upper-level private box.
• Anise kissed Xu Yi, and Stille teased him by showing him Elder Elusia's book about unions between elves and humans.
• Stille told Xu Yi that she minded sharing him but could accept Anise because she considered her family and trusted her.
• Stille pointed to a woman onstage who also wanted to marry Xu Yi, and Xu Yi turned to see who she was.

While watching Avir perform at the New Moon Grand Theater, Xu Yi learned that Stille had located several Beastman tribes and an Elf tribe in the Rulson Kingdom, as well as made contact with its Dwarves. The chapter left Xu Yi planning a trip to negotiate with the other races and arrange a Rulson Kingdom performance for the New Moon Song and Dance Troupe.

• Avir sang onstage, and Xu Yi praised her voice and the new interpretations she had added to her singing.
• Stille told Xu Yi she had contacted six Beastman tribes and discovered the Azshara Tribe of Elves in the Rulson Kingdom.
• Stille explained that the six Beastman tribes were open to cooperation, while the Azshara Tribe remained wary of the Xinfei Merchant Guild.
• Stille reported that Dwarves in the Rulson Kingdom had responded positively to her outreach, and Xu Yi considered traveling there with Elf elders and Dwarf leaders to negotiate with the races.
• Stille told Xu Yi that the Rulson Kingdom's ambassador had sought an invitation for the New Moon Song and Dance Troupe, and Avir's performance ended to thunderous applause.

Xu Yi negotiated with Servini over joint Magic Crystal refining factories and mining rights, while advising Great Mage Eisenka on the kingdom’s magic flying vehicle. He also recruited hundreds of mages for the Xinfei Merchant Guild, then was astonished and delighted when Great Mage Camilla and Great Mage Truchi arrived in Anvilmar City for an unexpected reason.

• Xu Yi and Servini provisionally agreed to share the technology for refining first- and second-grade high-concentration Magic Crystals in exchange for fifty-year mining rights to five Magic Crystal Mines.
• Xu Yi gave Great Mage Eisenka advice that reduced the magic flying vehicle’s startup energy consumption by at least thirty percent.
• The Xinfei Merchant Guild sent more than a thousand mages to the annual qualification examinations and recruited 261 certified mages, while making preliminary agreements with more than five hundred others.
• Great Mage Camilla and Great Mage Truchi arrived in Anvilmar City after the examinations, surprising Xu Yi.
• Xu Yi learned that the two Great Mages had come for an unexpected reason that left him astonished and overjoyed.

Great Mage Camilla demonstrated her new mastery of spatial laws to Xu Yi, revealing that she could imprison a cubic region of space and control what happened within it. She planned to seek official recognition at the Mages' Guild Headquarters, while Great Mage Truchi began to believe the Xinfei Merchant Guild's research methods could help him advance too.

• Great Mage Camilla formed a cube of space that Xu Yi's mana could not enter, then explained that her spatial law, Imprisonment, let her control objects and time within it.
• Xu Yi celebrated Camilla's breakthrough and its potential to protect the Xinfei Merchant Guild, but Great Mage Truchi cautioned that the Mages' Guild Headquarters still had to recognize her as an Archmage.
• Camilla said she and Truchi had come to Anvilmar City to visit the headquarters and consult other Archmages.
• Camilla credited her rapid progress to research at the Xinfei Merchant Guild Magic Research Institute, and Truchi said Xu Yi's precise, data-based approach had deepened his own understanding of magic.
• Truchi resolved that he could advance like Camilla and suspected that joining the Xinfei Merchant Guild might make it possible.

After learning that Grand Duke Wellen and the Sark Kingdom had besieged the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s main base, Xu Yi returned to the border and vowed revenge for the guild’s losses. Avita gave him intelligence on Wellen’s forces and supply depots, and Xu Yi began the counterattack.

• Xu Yi learned that Grand Duke Wellen had retaken the ceded territory, seized the guild’s military magic machinery, and surrounded its main base with help from a Sark Kingdom fleet.
• Hart reported that the guild’s base remained secure, though the roads and sea routes were blockaded.
• Avita brought rescued Xinfei Farm workers to Xu Yi, who promised to avenge those killed and compensate survivors for their losses.
• Xu Yi arranged for the survivors to be escorted to Black Rice City, where guild factories would temporarily shelter them.
• Avita showed Xu Yi a map marking Count Wellen’s forces and suspected military supply depots, and Xu Yi announced the counterattack.

Grand Duke Wellen and General Colerel struggled to contain the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s counterattacks, especially its Mana Airship, while waiting for mage reinforcements. General Colerel considered why Xu Yi had not asked the Lampari Kingdom’s West-Garrison Army to invade Wellen’s territory.

• Grand Duke Wellen demanded that General Colerel secure enough reinforcements from the Sark Kingdom as explosions sounded nearby.
• General Colerel recalled how the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s two hundred guards had worn down Wellen’s forces and how the First Fleet had failed to approach the guild’s coast.
• General Colerel saw the Mana Airship retreat after attacking Wellen’s supply depots and military camps, and admitted that neither he nor Wellen could stop it.
• General Colerel remembered that the Cheetah Legion’s invasion of the Black Rice Wasteland had been halted by the guild’s fortified defenses and the Lampari Kingdom’s West-Garrison Army.
• General Colerel wondered why Xu Yi had not asked the West-Garrison Army to invade Grand Duke Wellen’s territory.

Xu Yi reassured President Cruz that the Xinfei Merchant Guild could defend itself with advanced military magic machinery and superior intelligence. He armed the Amli Merchant Guild guards and sailed the Wingspan toward the Sark fleet, leaving the impending confrontation at sea.

• Xu Yi explained that his latest military magic machinery and raids on Grand Duke Wellen's armories had left the besieging forces at a disadvantage.
• Xu Yi refused to seek Queen Servini's help, saying he wanted the Xinfei Merchant Guild to resolve the crisis with its own strength.
• Xu Yi gave the Amli Merchant Guild guards a thousand magic rocket launchers as payment for their support.
• Avita reported that the Sark Kingdom's fleet was about twenty kilometers northwest of the Wingspan.
• Xu Yi ordered Nevall to take the Wingspan northwest at full speed toward the Sark fleet.

Xu Yi defeated Grand Duke Wellen and the other lords, then established the Stantin Duchy Congress instead of taking the title of Grand Duke. As he reflected on the lives lost and resolved to keep control of his own fate, he achieved a breakthrough in magic.

• The Wingspan destroyed a Sark Kingdom First Fleet squadron, and Xu Yi used space magic to drive off the surviving mages.
• The Wingspan defeated General Colerel's main fleet, ending the blockade, and Xu Yi's forces broke Grand Duke Wellen's siege and drove him into hiding.
• Xu Yi's private guard defeated two neighboring lords, then seven more, before routing a united forty-thousand-strong army with only five thousand guards.
• Xu Yi took control of the Stantin Duchy but rejected the title of Grand Duke, establishing the Stantin Duchy Congress and naming Count Angklu its chairman.
• Xu Yi reflected on the lives lost in the conflict, resolved never to leave his fate in others' hands, and achieved a breakthrough as the leaves outside rippled.