Chapter Summaries

Aoteman and other beastmen sought to join the Xinfei Merchant Guild Guard Corps as it expanded, but Captain Tiger and Miss Karimonton introduced an intelligence test alongside the recruitment assessments. The chapter ended with Karimonton urging Tiger and his beastmen to study so they could keep up with the machinery-based Guard Corps.

• Aoteman stood among the beastmen hoping to be selected for the Xinfei Merchant Guild Guard Corps, while Tiger complained that the applicants were too scrawny.
• Miss Karimonton explained that poor living conditions had kept many beastmen from developing strong physiques, and that the President's order had forced the Guard Corps to lower its recruitment standards.
• Tiger told the applicants that discipline was essential and announced that their first assessment would be an intelligence test, leaving them bewildered before they entered the examination hall in groups.
• Tiger asked Miss Karimonton why the President had added the test, and she explained that guards needed enough intelligence to learn to operate military magic machinery.
• Tiger admitted that beastmen struggled to learn new machinery compared with elves, humans, and dwarves, and Karimonton urged him and his subordinates to study so they would not be left behind.

Xu Yi discussed the Xinfei Merchant Guild Guard Corps’ disappointing third recruitment drive with Hart and agreed to send researchers to help train its guards. He then weighed whether to expand the corps by establishing military bases abroad, knowing that doing so could threaten the guild’s relations with other countries and shape the future of the Sains Continent.

• Xu Yi told Hart that the third drive recruited only 398 guards because the corps’ standards were high and many qualified candidates had already joined in earlier drives.
• Hart admitted that training the new recruits to operate Military Magic Machinery was difficult and asked for researchers to assist the corps.
• Xu Yi agreed to transfer researchers familiar with Military Magic Machinery to help the Guard Corps.
• After Hart left, Xu Yi considered how the guild’s status and strict standards limited its recruitment pool, especially among humans.
• Xu Yi weighed establishing military bases in other countries to recruit locally against the diplomatic and financial costs of expanding the Guard Corps.

A convoy led by Zeborto arrived at the Nam Co Mine, where he learned that a growing crowd of Dero protesters had been blocking the mine. As Zeborto moved to negotiate, a crossbow bolt killed a man in the crowd, and the protesters accused the Xinfei Merchant Guild of murder.

• Zeborto's convoy arrived at the Nam Co Mine to collect ore, and Abakh welcomed him and arranged a meal.
• Zeborto inspected the mine with Abakh, who hoped the inspection would improve his prospects for promotion.
• Abakh told Zeborto that nearly a thousand protesters had gathered outside demanding the mine be returned to the Dero.
• Zeborto realized the protest was organized to target the mine or the Xinfei Merchant Guild, and prepared to negotiate with the crowd.
• A crossbow bolt struck a middle-aged protester in the chest, and someone shouted that the Xinfei Merchant Guild had killed him.

A deadly clash at the Nam Co Mine left Dero locals and Xinfei Merchant Guild employees dead, including guild overseer Zeborto, and prompted the guild to condemn the Dero Kingdom. The Candel Empire publicly blamed the guild and announced an investigation, while the Dero Kingdom also challenged the guild, drawing the continent’s attention to the mine.

• After locals stormed the mine, Zeborto refused to flee and was shot in the neck by a crossbow bolt as he tried to address the crowd.
• The clash left three Dero dead, dozens injured, more than ten Xinfei Merchant Guild employees dead, and over forty employees missing; the mine was seized and badly damaged.
• The Xinfei Merchant Guild condemned the Dero Kingdom and sent its Guards Corps to the mine to investigate and search for its missing employees.
• The Candel Empire declared that the guild’s guards had fired first and that the first victim was a Candel citizen, then announced plans to send an Investigation Team into the Dero Kingdom.
• The Dero Kingdom offered to cooperate with both investigations but vowed to seek justice for the Dero if the guild was found responsible.
• The guild sent a five-hundred-strong detachment to the Nam Co Mine as the continent questioned why the Dero Kingdom had suddenly defied it.

Resas and Floyd faced a Candel Empire force at the Nam Co Mine while both sides waited for their superiors to negotiate. Resas went to Captain Uther’s camp to demand the return of witnesses the empire had questioned, and Uther came out to confront him.

• Resas asked Floyd how quickly their guards could defeat the Candel Empire troops, while Floyd warned that a head-on fight would be uncertain.
• Resas recalled that the guild guards had reclaimed the Nam Co Mine from Dero thugs before two thousand elite Candel Empire soldiers arrived to investigate.
• Resas decided to carry out the task of rescuing missing guild personnel by questioning witnesses, and Floyd followed him with twenty guards.
• Resas demanded that Count Zidal summon Uther, prompting Zidal to order the camp guards to seize Resas, but they hesitated.
• Captain Uther emerged, and Resas demanded the return of the witnesses after the three days allotted for the empire’s questioning had ended.

Resas received the six Mine Site Guards he had handed over to the Candel Empire, only to find them dead, and suspected the empire was provoking the Xinfei Merchant Guild. He sent Floyd to investigate the camp, where a powerful Mage captured him as a fire blazed near the mine.

• Captain Uther returned the six Mine Site Guards as corpses and claimed they had died during questioning.
• Resas and Floyd suspected the Candel Empire had deliberately killed the witnesses and discussed why it might be provoking them.
• Resas ordered Floyd to sneak into the Candel Empire camp that night and uncover what was happening.
• Floyd found an old Mage inside the command tent and realized he was at least a ninth-level Mage.
• The Mage restrained Floyd with a pillar of earth, called him a rare test subject, and knocked him unconscious as a fire rose near the mine.

Resas led the Xinfei Merchant Guild guards in retreat after a surprise bombardment devastated the mine and disabled their Magic Locomotives. The guards escaped into the woods, while Captain Uther and Count Zidal appeared with a force of at least a thousand people to search the area.

• Explosions struck the mine, and Resas ordered the surviving guards to retreat after a later blast destroyed the barracks.
• Resas learned that someone had tampered with every Magic Locomotive and led his guards along Floyd's backup escape route.
• Two more blasts hit the guards as they crossed the mountainside, and a powerful pillar of light drained Resas's Mana Shield.
• Resas ordered the guards to retreat separately into the woods and seek the branch base.
• After the bombardment ended, at least a thousand people entered the woods to search, while Captain Uther and Count Zidal stood at the entrance.

Xu Yi went to meet Marshal Sudiman after the Candel Empire summoned him to discuss the conflict at Nam Co Mine. Sudiman demanded that the Xinfei Merchant Guild transfer its military magic machinery technology, leaving Xu Yi facing an unclear threat.

• Captain Uther, Count Zidal, Master Jonah, and Duke Roman discussed the escaped Xinfei Merchant Guild Guards and planned to pursue them and seize their base near Dero City.
• A hidden observer recorded the group's conversation and disappeared into the woods.
• Xu Yi rejected Count Elwin's attempts to delay their discussion and traveled with him to a military manor outside Wimbledon City.
• Marshal Sudiman introduced himself to Xu Yi and asked whether the Xinfei Merchant Guild would ever transfer its military magic machinery technology to the Candel Empire.
• Sudiman dismissed the technology already being transferred and demanded that Xu Yi hand over the military technology, while Xu Yi questioned what the marshal meant.

Marshal Sudiman and Archmage Laduka tried to kill Xu Yi in an anti-magic trap, but Xu Yi resisted their attacks and displayed power that shocked Laduka. The chapter ended with Laduka realizing Xu Yi had become an Archmage.

• Marshal Sudiman told Xu Yi that the Xinfei Merchant Guild was an unpredictable threat and revealed his intention to destroy it.
• Marshal Sudiman trapped Xu Yi in anti-magic space, but Xu Yi restored the flow of magic and countered an attack from Archmage Laduka.
• Xu Yi accused Marshal Sudiman of conspiring with the Malo Empire to divide the Xinfei Merchant Guild, while Sudiman ordered Laduka to kill him.
• Xu Yi escaped Laduka's attack and exposed the spatial rifts of the Imprisonment Formation blocking the reception hall's exit.
• Archmage Laduka attacked Xu Yi with a spatial rift, but Xu Yi's counterattack devastated the surrounding area and left Laduka stunned.
• Archmage Laduka realized that Xu Yi had become an Archmage.

Xu Yi revealed that he had become an Archmage when he survived Laduka’s spatial attack, forcing Sudiman to call in another Archmage. Xu Yi stabilized the chaotic mana space around himself, and the second Archmage appeared beside Laduka, lamenting that Xu Yi was president of the Xinfei Merchant Guild.

• Xu Yi withstood Archmage Laduka’s powerful spatial attack, revealing his Archmage rank and astonishing Laduka and Marshal Sudiman.
• Laduka told Sudiman that he could no longer confidently defeat Xu Yi alone, so Sudiman signaled for Orphalian to join the battle.
• Xu Yi searched for an escape route but found the manor sealed by layers of magic barriers and Laduka’s watchful presence.
• A second Archmage disrupted the mana space around Xu Yi, causing spells and spatial rifts to appear around him.
• Xu Yi fought to control the unstable mana space and restored it to stability.
• A black spatial vortex opened beside Laduka, and the arriving Archmage sighed that Xu Yi had to be the president of the Xinfei Merchant Guild.

Xu Yi refused Archmage Orphalian’s offer to abandon the Xinfei Merchant Guild, and Archmages Orphalian and Laduka attacked him. Xu Yi used a black halo to neutralize both of their domains, leaving the two Archmages astonished.

• Archmage Orphalian offered to spare Xu Yi if he dissolved the Xinfei Merchant Guild and left the magic industry, but Xu Yi refused.
• Archmage Orphalian and Archmage Laduka took control of the mana space with their domains and attacked Xu Yi.
• Marshal Sudiman watched from a safe distance, believing Xu Yi’s death would leave the Xinfei Merchant Guild leaderless and easier for the empire to control.
• Xu Yi released a black halo from his fingertip that restored the magic elements and nullified both Archmages’ domains.
• Archmage Orphalian and Archmage Laduka stared at Xu Yi in disbelief after he neutralized their attacks.

Xu Yi explained how he had countered Archmages Orphalian and Laduka by accelerating mana space’s return to stability, then revealed a device that protected him from their attacks. He vanished inside its barrier, leaving Marshal Sudiman to reconsider his claim that he had prepared for every possibility.

• Xu Yi explained that his research on mana space stability let him restore abnormal mana space faster than the Archmages could disrupt it.
• Archmage Laduka urged Archmage Orphalian to focus on killing Xu Yi, and Orphalian reluctantly agreed.
• Xu Yi declared that the Archmages could not kill him and scattered metal components that formed a diamond-like polyhedron of linked beams.
• Xu Yi challenged Marshal Sudiman to consider a contingency plan, then entered the polyhedron.
• Archmages Orphalian and Laduka unleashed forbidden spells, but the barrier negated them and Xu Yi vanished.

Xu Yi escaped an ambush by Archmages Orphalian and Laduka using a teleportation device, then returned to Wimbledon City in disguise. He found the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s branch sealed by the Candel Empire and learned from a hidden contact that the guild’s holdings in the city had been lost.

• Xu Yi teleported more than thirty kilometers away from the ambush using his experimental Magic Teleportation Device.
• Xu Yi failed to connect to the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s network and realized the Candel Empire had targeted the guild’s other holdings.
• Xu Yi concealed his presence with his domain and an illusion, then flew into Wimbledon City.
• Xu Yi saw the Royal Guards Corps sealing the guild’s largest branch on West Street and left without drawing attention.
• Xu Yi entered a hidden cellar with a contact, who tearfully told him that everything the guild had built in Wimbledon City was gone.

Xu Yi returned to Wimbledon City to find the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s properties seized and its employees arrested, but his attempts to escape failed. Marshal Sudiman trapped him atop the city wall and confronted him with the two archmages who had fought him earlier.

• A Xinfei Merchant Guild agent told Xu Yi that Candel Empire soldiers had seized the guild’s shops and arrested its employees, and Xu Yi instructed him to contact survivors and gather information.
• The agent revealed he could use a City Defense Army contact to learn where the captured employees were being held, while Xu Yi set out to leave Wimbledon City.
• Xu Yi found the streets under heavy military patrols and discovered that his teleportation array could not connect to another array outside the city.
• Xu Yi attempted to teleport through the city wall but struck a mana barrier and fell back into Wimbledon City.
• Marshal Sudiman revealed that the agent had been bought off and declared that Xu Yi would not escape the city.
• Marshal Sudiman stepped aside as Archmage Orphalian and Archmage Laduka appeared before Xu Yi.

Xu Yi discovered that the Anti-Magic Domain Array sealed the sky above Wimbledon City and refused to surrender to Marshal Sudiman and the two Archmages. As he attacked Orphalian, he secretly sent a Metal Box into the barrier, where it began displaying a pattern of lights.

• Xu Yi flew into the Anti-Magic Domain Array above the city and was injured when its power disrupted his mana.
• Orphalian explained that the array sealed Wimbledon City and Laduka urged Xu Yi to surrender.
• Xu Yi rejected Sudiman's offer, suspecting they would cripple his magic and force him to serve them.
• Xu Yi gathered magic elements and hurled an electric orb at Orphalian on the wall.
• Xu Yi secretly tossed a Metal Box into the barrier; it stopped inside a sphere of light and began lighting up with points across one face.

Xu Yi fought Archmage Orphalian and Archmage Laduka above Wimbledon City, using lightning attacks and threatening to cast the forbidden spell Falling Star to force them to defend the city. He canceled the spell and remained locked in a domain stalemate with the two Archmages, who expected his mana to run out first.

• Xu Yi hurled a powerful ball of lightning at Orphalian and Laduka, and Orphalian blocked it with a magic barrier to protect Wimbledon City.
• Xu Yi repeatedly sent lightning balls toward different parts of the city, forcing Orphalian and Laduka to teleport and intercept them while Laduka attacked Xu Yi with purple fireballs.
• Xu Yi began casting Falling Star, and he accused Orphalian and Laduka of being more despicable for helping the Candel Empire ambush him and shut down the Xinfei Merchant Guild.
• Orphalian and Laduka attacked Xu Yi with their domains, but Xu Yi canceled Falling Star and activated his own domain, leaving the three Archmages in a stalemate.
• Orphalian and Laduka concluded that Xu Yi’s mana would run out before theirs if the stalemate continued, while Xu Yi made no further move.

Xu Yi kept Archmage Orphalian and Archmage Laduka talking while teaching them about magic machinery and giving them a component and papers on mana space. He then used the metal box to pass through the Anti-Magic Domain Array and escape above Wimbledon City, leaving the two archmages baffled.

• Xu Yi asked Archmage Orphalian and Archmage Laduka about the Candel Empire’s plans for the Xinfei Merchant Guild and challenged their disdain for magic machinery.
• Xu Yi argued that studying magic machinery had strengthened his understanding of magical theory and mana space, then gave the archmages a metal component and recommended his papers in the Xinfei Magic Industry Weekly.
• Xu Yi activated a metal box whose surface displayed patterns of colored light while the two archmages intensified their domains against him.
• Xu Yi flew through the Anti-Magic Domain Array and vanished above Wimbledon City.
• Archmage Orphalian and Archmage Laduka tried to follow Xu Yi but were bounced back by the still-functioning barrier.

After forty-seven countries and sixty-three organizations declared the Xinfei Merchant Guild a hostile entity, Xu Yi rallied its senior executives and prepared the guild for war. The chapter ended with him declaring that they would wage war against the world.

• The Candel Empire declared the Xinfei Merchant Guild illegal and demanded that the Stantin Duchy ban its operations.
• The Malo Empire issued a similar ban, and forty-seven countries and sixty-three organizations soon severed ties with the guild and seized or damaged its facilities.
• Xu Yi told the guild's senior executives that their enemies were weaker than they appeared but ordered them to take the threat seriously.
• Xu Yi ordered Sebas to put the guild on wartime footing and Canby to boost military magic machinery production.
• Xu Yi ordered Hart to deliver a devastating opening blow when the enemy attacked, then declared that the guild would wage war against the world.

Count Antusol led the Candel Empire’s Radiant Legion into the Rulson Kingdom, confident that its heavy cavalry could crush the smaller force. Rulson’s mana cannons and armored vehicles devastated the legion, and Antusol was killed as his troops tried to retreat.

• Count Antusol dismissed his adjutant’s warnings and ordered the Radiant Legion’s three thousand heavy cavalrymen to charge the Rulson Kingdom’s troops.
• Rulson’s mana cannons blasted apart the cavalry charge, killing more than half the battalion before it reached the enemy.
• Rulson’s mana armored vehicles pursued the survivors and cut them down with their weapons, prompting Count Antusol to order a retreat.
• More mana cannon fire struck the reorganizing Radiant Legion, engulfing Count Antusol and Pineapple in an explosion.
• After a day of fighting, the Radiant Legion suffered a crushing defeat, with Count Antusol dead and fewer than five thousand troops escaping.

War erupted across the region as Malo and Frank forces were checked by the Drake Duchy, while the Sark Kingdom launched an attack on Lampari territory. The Lampari garrison ambushed and destroyed the Sark force, then prepared to strike back.

• Marquis Raven and Marquis Guduoer watched Malo and Frank troops struggle against the Drake Duchy’s smaller force and discussed Grand Duchess Caroline’s alliance with the Xinfei Merchant Guild.
• Three thousand Greedy Wolf Legion soldiers approached the Lampari Northern Garrison’s office near Randy Town to wipe out its defenders and seize its supplies.
• Dengpulu’s troops detonated explosives against the ambushers, then crossbowmen finished off the surviving Sark soldiers.
• Dengpulu spoke with Laien, who reported that his garrison had also defeated its attackers, and they agreed to regroup and retaliate against the Sark Kingdom.