Chapter Summaries

Xu Yi met Baron Haines, who came to Bunta City at Reeves’s request to explore cooperation with the Xinfei Merchant Guild. After learning Reeves had given Xu Yi a personal card, Haines decided to spend half a month investigating Xu Yi and the guild, and Xu Yi agreed to welcome him.

• Baron Haines told Xu Yi that Reeves regretted missing an earlier chance to cooperate and wanted to discuss new products from the Xinfei Merchant Guild.
• Haines asked why Xu Yi had left mage studies to pursue magic machinery, and Xu Yi said it was a matter of personal interest.
• Xu Yi learned that Reeves had asked Haines to visit but had given him no specific cooperation plans.
• Haines and Viscount Leslie reacted with surprise when Xu Yi recalled Reeves’s personal card and its Anvilmar City address.
• Haines proposed observing Xu Yi and the guild’s factories and asking Bunta City residents about the business during his half-month stay.
• After Viscount Leslie signaled him, Xu Yi welcomed Haines’s investigation on behalf of the Xinfei Merchant Guild.

Xu Yi realized Baron Haines’s visit had exposed gaps in the workshop’s worker-safety arrangements and began addressing them, then conceived of launching a newspaper. In October, the first Bunta Daily went on sale and quickly sold out as residents read about the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s Farmer Support Plan.

• Baron Haines toured the workshops, recorded workers’ accounts of machine-related risks, and questioned Canby about the dwarves’ lives.
• Xu Yi instructed Heinz to improve worker-safety and injury arrangements, hoping Baron Haines would report the ideas to Reeves.
• Watching Baron Haines’s curiosity inspire thoughts of newspapers, Xu Yi decided to start the Bunta Daily as a way to promote the guild and advertise.
• More than ten days later, a boy began selling the first Bunta Daily on Bunta City’s streets for one silver coin per copy.
• The newspaper’s front-page story described the Farmer Support Plan, prompting residents to discuss its benefits as the copies quickly sold out.

Xu Yi and Viscount Leslie visited Count Sean Samo at the City Lord's Manor, where their conversation revealed the Count's interest in the Xinfei Merchant Guild and its inventions. The banquet ended with Xu Yi wondering whether the Count's familiarity was a friendly gesture or a warning.

• Viscount Leslie praised the Bunta Daily, and Xu Yi explained that he had made Baron Haines its editor-in-chief while keeping the newspaper's ownership under Leslie's name.
• Leslie warned Xu Yi that publishing a newspaper in Anvilmar would be difficult and urged him to make a strong impression on Count Sean Samo.
• Steward Ette escorted Xu Yi and Leslie to the dining room, where Count Samo welcomed them and recalled how Leslie's banquet had promoted Xu Yi's Magic Air Conditioner.
• Count Samo praised the Xinfei Merchant Guild's many new inventions and had a Magic Rice Cooker brought in with the dinner.
• Xu Yi wondered whether Count Samo's repeated displays of knowledge about the guild were meant as goodwill or as a warning.

Xu Yi met Count Samo to discuss the Farmer Support Plan and explain how agricultural magic machinery could increase harvests while freeing farmers for factory work. Count Samo voiced support for the Xinfei Merchant Guild but grew suspicious of Xu Yi’s push to expand rice cultivation, and the discussion ended with his accusation that the guild wanted Bunta City to switch to rice for its Magic Rice Cooker.

• Count Samo asked Xu Yi why he had requested the meeting, and Xu Yi explained the Farmer Support Plan’s goals of expanding mechanized farming and freeing farmers for other work.
• Xu Yi told Count Samo that the Leo Merchant Guild had poached some Xinfei workers by offering higher wages, and Count Samo expressed concern for the guild’s future.
• Viscount Leslie described how two Small Magic Harvesters let him harvest seven hectares in under two days with fewer than twenty slaves.
• Viscount Leslie explained that he planned to reclaim all twenty-one hectares of suitable land on his estate, while Xu Yi outlined plans for more agricultural machines and redesigned fields for rice cultivation.
• Count Samo questioned the shift from wheat to rice and accused Xu Yi of promoting rice so people would buy the Xinfei Guild’s Magic Rice Cooker.

After discovering Vivian’s talent for reproducing and designing magic machinery, Xu Yi questioned her about the drawings and learned she was bored staying home. He offered to find her something to do and asked whether she wanted to go to school.

• Xu Yi returned home late and found Vivian asleep at the table after waiting for him without eating dinner.
• Xu Yi discovered Vivian had copied his magic machinery schematics and drawn attractive designs based on them.
• Xu Yi examined Vivian’s other drawings, including portraits and landscapes, and concluded she was not an industrial spy.
• Xu Yi told Vivian not to wait hungry for him when he came home late and asked whether she had drawn the pictures.
• Vivian admitted that staying at home was a little boring, and Xu Yi asked whether she wanted to go to school.

Xu Yi gave an open lecture at Baron Rector Magic Academy, introducing the basics and potential of magical machinery to a packed hall of students. He left the students eager for more and hinted that he would return to teach again.

• Olin Zetaman and his classmates predicted that Xu Yi would give the lecture, while Olin argued with another student who challenged his knowledge of magical machinery.
• Director Hiller introduced Xu Yi to the crowded lecture hall, and the students welcomed him enthusiastically.
• Xu Yi explained how machinery worked as a tool and described magic machines such as the Magic Rice Cooker, Small Magic Harvester, and Magic Fan.
• The students grew absorbed in Xu Yi's explanation, and the lecture continued until after school ended and Hiller came to remind him for the third time.
• Xu Yi ended the lesson and promised more lectures, while Hiller worried that the students would become distracted by magical machinery.

Xu Yi visited Great Mage Camilla’s Magic Tower to advance research on agricultural and heavy magic machinery, teaching the mages there the mechanical principles behind the Magic Excavator. After explaining the design to Luti and the others, he went upstairs to meet Camilla, who offered him one piece of good news and one piece of bad news.

• Xu Yi returned to the Magic Tower to help develop magic machinery and build the mages’ engineering skills.
• Luti told Xu Yi that her team had designed the Magic Excavator’s individual magic arrays but could not combine them without conflicts.
• Xu Yi reviewed the team’s work and explained the machine’s design and underlying mechanical principles in detail.
• Xu Yi finished teaching the mages and went to the top floor to see Great Mage Camilla.
• Great Mage Camilla asked Xu Yi whether he wanted to hear the good news or the bad news first.

Xu Yi learned that the Mages' Guild had rejected his proposal to patent magic arrays, though it approved his special recommendation for next month's Qualification Certification Examination. Great Mage Camilla urged him to pursue greater magical power, but Xu Yi stayed committed to magic machinery and left puzzled by her remarks about Stille.

• Great Mage Camilla told Xu Yi that the Mages' Guild rejected his magic-array patent proposal because it violated the Guild's principles, but approved her recommendation for his examination.
• Great Mage Camilla explained that powerful mages could wield enormous influence, and Xu Yi demonstrated his mastery of Flame Burst.
• Great Mage Camilla praised Xu Yi's magical talent and urged him to focus on magic until he became an Archmage.
• Xu Yi argued that reaching Archmage status could take thirty years and said he preferred to spend his limited time researching magic machinery.
• Great Mage Camilla agreed to stop persuading Xu Yi, reminded him to keep improving his magic, and hinted that someone else might take an opportunity involving Stille.

Xu Yi watched the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s agricultural Magic Machinery transform Viscount Leslie’s farmland and discussed its limits and the guild’s shortage of skilled craftsmen with Count Samo. Count Samo revealed that the kingdom would reduce taxes on the machinery and promote it nationwide, and Xu Yi anticipated a major expansion in sales.

• Viscount Leslie used the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s Magic Machinery to level and renovate his farmland, while Count Samo praised how quickly the machines worked.
• Xu Yi explained that he hoped to build more powerful excavators but that the continent’s crude materials limited their performance.
• Xu Yi noted that orders for agricultural machinery were consuming workshop capacity needed for machine-tool research, and Count Samo said he could not find enough qualified craftsmen.
• Count Samo told Xu Yi that the Agriculture Bureau and the king had approved partial tax relief for the guild’s agricultural machinery and planned to promote it across the kingdom.
• Xu Yi realized that the tax reduction and official promotion could greatly expand the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s sales.

Xu Yi visited the dwarf tribe to inspect its alloy research and discovered a promising iron ball made by accident. Mulu revealed that he had added silverleaf grass powder to the molten iron, leaving Xu Yi eager to learn more about the alloy.

• Count Samo told Xu Yi that the King wanted lower prices for agricultural magic machines and warned him to be careful when meeting His Majesty.
• Xu Yi agreed to explain his Farmer Support Plan to the King and confirmed he would attend the Mages' Guild assessment in Anvilmar.
• Xu Yi visited Shluka's tribe, where the dwarves admitted they had not produced the requested alloy steel despite months of experiments.
• Shluka showed Xu Yi the dwarves' experimental alloys, and Xu Yi found a smooth, lightweight, hard iron ball among them.
• Mulu explained that he had accidentally added a jar of silverleaf grass powder while smelting the iron ball.

Xu Yi observed the dwarves smelting silverleaf alloy and discovered its useful properties, then asked them to research it and another durable alloy. Chief Shluka warned that recruiting too many dwarves could make human leaders suspect Xu Yi of plotting a rebellion, leaving Xu to weigh his labor needs against political risks.

• Xu Yi watched Mulu reproduce the smelting process and recorded how silverleaf grass powder transformed molten iron.
• Xu Yi tested the resulting silverleaf alloy, found it malleable and rust-resistant, and awarded Mulu twenty gold coins for discovering it.
• Xu Yi found another discarded iron ball with unusually high hardness and wear resistance and asked Shluka's tribe to research both alloys.
• Shluka explained that the tribe lacked enough workers and warned that employing large numbers of dwarves could arouse suspicion among human leaders.
• Xu Yi thanked Shluka and asked him to keep seeking dwarf workers, while Shluka remarked that dwarves in other tribes lived little better than his own people had.

Xu Yi negotiated with Chief Monto to recruit Angola Tribe dwarves for Xinfei Merchant Guild factories and materials research. The agreement secured workers and research help, leaving Xu Yi hopeful that the dwarves could develop new alloys and support his industrial plans.

• Chief Monto and two elders accepted Xu Yi's terms after seeing how the Norma Tribe's fortunes had improved.
• Monto offered to send three hundred adults to work, but Xu Yi said his guild could initially employ only around a hundred directly.
• Xu Yi proposed hiring experienced Angola Tribe dwarves to conduct materials research, and Shluka explained the work to Monto and the elders.
• Xu Yi offered five hundred gold coins for each research result that met his approval, and Monto agreed to the deal.
• Xu Yi left the negotiations pleased that he had secured more workers, research support, and closer relations with the dwarves.

Xu Yi negotiated for the Angola Tribe to send dwarf craftsmen to the Xinfei Merchant Guild and learned how human exploitation had kept the dwarves poor. He arranged for ten dwarf prospectors to survey the Lampari Kingdom, but an elf guest arrived before the chiefs could settle the payment.

• Xu Yi and Chief Monto agreed on salaries, benefits, and a research laboratory for the Angola Tribe's craftsmen.
• Chief Shluka explained that humans charged dwarves exorbitant prices for wheat while buying their ore cheaply, leaving the tribes impoverished.
• Xu Yi learned that dwarves were expert miners and prospectors, and asked Chief Monto and Chief Shluka to select five prospectors each to survey the Lampari Kingdom.
• Xu Yi promised each prospector a hundred gold coins after the survey, and the chiefs protested that the payment was too generous.
• A dwarf announced that an elf guest had arrived again.

Xu Yi met Anise, an elf seeking help for her tribe’s dwindling river, and saw a chance to build ties with the elves. He devised a solution and gave it to Chief Monto to pass along, confident it would change Anise’s view of him.

• Anise visited Chief Monto to ask for dwarf help with her tribe’s worsening water shortage, but he refused because his people were already committed to Xu Yi’s factory.
• Xu Yi stopped Anise and offered to help, but she said she did not trust humans and vanished with the Veiling Spell.
• Chief Monto explained that silt had diverted part of the river upstream from the elves’ home in the Falling Rain Forest, reducing its flow.
• Xu Yi recognized an opportunity to establish contact with the elves and drew a proposed solution to the river problem.
• Xu Yi handed his plans to Chief Monto, asking him to show them to Anise or her tribe.

Xu Yi returned to Bunta City after arranging for a hundred dwarves to join the Xinfei Merchant Guild and found its workshops working overtime to meet booming magic rice cooker and agricultural machinery orders. The Bunta City Commercial Association invited him to a banquet, and he accepted while suspecting its members had already set their sights on the guild.

• Xu Yi left the Angola Tribe after explaining upcoming materials research to Chief Shluka and Chief Monto, while Canby stayed behind to arrange the arrival of a hundred dwarves.
• Xu Yi visited the factory and saw Heinz and the workers pushing to fill a flood of magic rice cooker orders from neighboring cities, especially Karma City.
• Xu Yi urged the exhausted Heinz to rest and delegate more work to Alex, but Heinz insisted he would take care of himself.
• Heinz told Xu Yi that Bunta City's Commercial Association had invited him to a banquet, and Xu Yi accepted the invitation.
• Xu Yi read the invitation bearing the association chairman's name and wondered why its members had already taken an interest in the Xinfei Merchant Guild.

Xu Yi began investigating the expensive Magic Crystal Lamp and discovered that a simpler lightning magic array could provide a starting point for developing steady lighting. After assigning the research to Stille, Akali, and Avita, he agreed to take Akali as his companion to a Commercial Association banquet.

• Xu Yi examined the two-hundred-gold-coin Magic Crystal Lamp and, with Stille's help, carefully broke its glass cover to inspect the intricate magic array inside.
• Avita recalled a similar magic array from a book, drew it, and set it up; Xu Yi activated it, producing a brief flash of bright white light.
• Xu Yi assigned Stille, Akali, and Avita to study both arrays and modify the simpler one to emit steady light, with Great Mage Camilla available to advise them.
• Akali asked Xu Yi to take her to the upcoming Commercial Association banquet, and he agreed to bring her as his companion.

Xu Yi persuaded Viscount Leslie that attending the merchant guild banquet would help the Xinfei Merchant Guild gain influence, then accepted the transfer of Leslie’s hundred slaves. Leslie required Xu Yi to train three hundred more slaves in the guild’s magic machinery production, leaving Xu Yi to wonder why Leslie had not asked him to teach them to make Magic Machine Tools.

• Viscount Leslie warned Xu Yi against attending the banquet, but Xu Yi argued that the Xinfei Merchant Guild needed a voice among the major guilds and their suppliers.
• Viscount Leslie gave Xu Yi a contract transferring ownership of the hundred slaves who worked in the factory.
• Viscount Leslie required Xu Yi to train three hundred arriving slaves in producing the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s magic machinery for half a year.
• Xu Yi agreed to teach the slaves and signed the transfer contract.
• Xu Yi suspected the three hundred slaves were intended to help Leslie’s family copy the guild’s business, but wondered why Leslie had not asked him to teach them to manufacture Magic Machine Tools.

Xu Yi and Akali attended a Bunta City Commercial Association banquet, where the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s growing fame drew the guests’ attention. President Manhattan Lanco welcomed Xu Yi with a pearl necklace for Akali and invited him to talk privately.

• Xu Yi and Akali arrived at the mansion in an unassuming carriage, and a guard recognized Akali from her Xinfei Merchant Guild billboard.
• President Manhattan Lanco greeted Xu Yi and was introduced by Moon Cruz as the Salank Merchant Guild president and head of Bunta City’s Commercial Association.
• Lanco praised the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s Farmer Support Plan, prompting the banquet guests to watch Xu Yi with envy and curiosity.
• Lanco presented Akali with a pearl necklace, and Xu Yi put it around her neck despite her protests.
• Lanco invited Xu Yi to talk, and Xu Yi accepted his offer.

Xu Yi attended Chairman Lanke’s banquet and confronted Chairman Morgan over the pig iron price increase and the Bunta Daily’s coverage of the Xinfei Merchant Guild. Chairman Lanke then offered the guild an exceptional place in the Commercial Association, leaving Xu Yi to respond.

• Xu Yi entered the meeting room and recognized the prominent merchants, including Fuller Morgan, chairman of the Falkor Merchant Guild.
• Morgan questioned Xu Yi about his relationship with Baron Haines, and Xu Yi called them ordinary friends.
• Morgan accused Xu Yi of hiding his friendship with Haines, and Xu Yi challenged Morgan over the Falkor Merchant Guild’s ten-percent pig iron price increase.
• Morgan claimed the price increase was a collective decision and not aimed solely at Xinfei, while Xu Yi compared it to the Bunta Daily’s coverage of his guild.
• Chairman Lanke revealed that the Commercial Association had decided to admit the Xinfei Merchant Guild as an exception and asked Xu Yi what he thought.

Xu Yi attended a Commercial Association banquet where Chairman Lanke and the other merchant leaders pressed him to share Xinfei Merchant Guild’s magic machinery technology. He rejected their proposed trade-offs and presented his own terms, leaving Chairman Lanke astonished by how simple they seemed.

• Chairman Lanke explained that Commercial Association members shared resources and information, then declared that Xinfei’s manufacturing technology was a resource it should share.
• Xu Yi recognized that Lanke and the other five merchants wanted access to Xinfei’s core technology and kept his reaction hidden while asking what technologies they meant.
• Lanke and the other chairmen offered benefits such as gemstone information, help entering the jewelry trade, and cheaper pig iron in exchange for Xinfei’s technology.
• Xu Yi said he was willing to share the technology but rejected their terms and handed Lanke a proposal he had prepared.
• After reading Xu Yi’s proposal, Lanke asked in astonishment whether it was really all Xu Yi wanted.