Chapter Summaries

The Xinfei Merchant Guild began a genuine, rapid withdrawal from the Mana Magical Kingdom, surprising the continent and prompting Freya to ask Xu Yi why he had made such a costly decision. Xu Yi hinted that his actions served a long-term purpose tied to the limits of the guild’s power to preserve peace, but left the explanation unfinished.

• News of the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s withdrawal from the Mana Magical Kingdom spread across the continent, and people speculated that Xu Yi was using it to pressure the kingdom.
• The Xinfei Merchant Guild closed its branches, shut down and sold its factories, ended its cooperative ventures, and began moving its personnel out of the Mana Magical Kingdom.
• Freya asked Xu Yi why he was taking the withdrawal so far, and he said the kingdom’s people did not welcome the guild.
• Xu Yi admitted the decision brought the guild short-term losses and little immediate benefit, while Freya noted that many employees had resigned rather than leave.
• Xu Yi asked Freya why he had exposed the Candel Empire’s secret military magic machinery development without taking further action, and confirmed that he had deliberately allowed it.
• Xu Yi asked whether the Xinfei Merchant Guild could maintain its deterrence and keep every country obedient forever.

Xu Yi told Freya he would stop interfering in the Sains Continent’s development and devote more time to exploring the universe, while promising to show her the world first. The Xinfei Merchant Guild’s withdrawal from the Mana Magical Kingdom left the kingdom without its intervention when war broke out, and the chapter ended as people began analyzing why its military had faltered.

• Xu Yi said he had done enough to improve life on the Sains Continent and wanted to focus on his dream of exploring the universe.
• Freya eagerly agreed that she wanted to explore the universe with Xu Yi, and he promised to take her to the Demoncloud Continent and other parts of the world before she turned twenty-five.
• Xu Yi told Freya he would no longer forcibly interfere in the continent’s affairs, while warning that those who resisted change would face harsh consequences.
• The Mana Magical Kingdom celebrated the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s withdrawal, believing other merchant guilds could fill the gaps it left behind.
• A border clash between the Mana Magical Kingdom and the Ensfran Kingdom escalated into months of fighting, and the Mana Magical Kingdom eventually surrendered a contested magic crystal mine and paid compensation for a ceasefire.
• People across the Sains Continent questioned why the Mana Magical Kingdom had struggled against the Ensfran Kingdom, and analysis of the kingdom’s military setbacks began.

King Constantine confronted the consequences of the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s withdrawal, which had crippled the Mana Magical Kingdom’s military logistics, agriculture, and industries. As Duke Nasasus blamed Count Joshua for the defeat, the palace ran out of standard magic crystals, leaving Constantine silent as he recognized another essential shortage.

• Duke Nasasus blamed Count Joshua for the army’s defeat, while Joshua maintained that the guild’s withdrawal had made logistics problems impossible to solve.
• King Constantine considered how the withdrawal had disrupted military supplies, farming, and the kingdom’s wider economy, and regretted the leadership’s role in driving the guild away.
• The Moon Shadow Tribe and other races severed trade with the kingdom, while human merchant guilds withdrew and worsened the economic crisis.
• King Constantine defended Count Joshua and told Duke Nasasus that neither logistics nor the frontline troops bore the chief responsibility for the defeat.
• The hall’s magic crystal lamps went dark, and an attendant reported that the palace had run out of standard magic crystals.
• King Constantine realized that the Xinfei Merchant Guild had been the kingdom’s only producer of standard magic crystals and fell silent.

Xu Yi ignored the Mana Magical Kingdom’s attempt to reconcile and explained why he planned to stop restraining the Sains Continent’s powers, while relying on the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s thriving foothold on the Demoncloud Continent. He then entered a heavily guarded site near the guild’s Main Base and saw a colossal object resembling a warhead.

• Xu Yi received a letter from the Redcloud Merchant Guild proposing farmland magic machinery cooperation, recognized the Mana Magical Kingdom’s appeal behind it, and dismissed the request.
• Xu Yi reflected that his withdrawal from the Mana Magical Kingdom had demonstrated the costs of neglecting magic industry, and that he would no longer try to prevent other countries from developing military magic machinery.
• Xu Yi considered the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s successful development of the Demoncloud Continent a reason to let the Sains Continent’s affairs take their course.
• Xu Yi left the Private Manor and entered a concealed, heavily shielded hill near the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s Main Base.
• Xu Yi saw a towering object resembling an enormous warhead inside the secured valley.

Eleven years after the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s decisive use of mana core energy in the war, Xu Yi reviewed a plan to test a more powerful warhead and asked about research into the energy’s dangerous side effects. Lamasia reported progress in clearing chaotic mana space, but revealed that the research had uncovered another problem.

• Xu Yi recalled how the Mana Space Chain Collapse Guided Missile had helped force the Candel Empire and Malo Empire to accept a ceasefire eleven years earlier.
• Lamasia presented a plan to secretly transport and test a New-Type Mana Core Warhead on a remote island in three days.
• Xu Yi asked Lamasia about research into the side effects of mana core energy and considered how the discovery could be controlled.
• Lamasia explained that the researchers had identified patterns in the chaotic mana space left by energy bursts and had cleared one abnormal region using specific magic element vibrations.
• Lamasia told Xu Yi that the research had revealed another problem.

Xu Yi defended the destructive mana core warhead research to Lamasia and planned to relocate its research center away from the Xinfei Merchant Guild's Main Base. Meanwhile, the Mana Magical Kingdom struggled with spring planting and job losses, ending with unrest in three provinces.

• Lamasia warned Xu Yi that a mana core warhead could devastate the valley, and Xu Yi argued that weapons were dangerous because of their wielders, while insisting the warheads could drive mages off the battlefield.
• Xu Yi told Lamasia that mana core energy might eventually have civilian uses and planned to move the research department to an island in the Endless Sea.
• In spring 3815, Farmland Magic Machinery and factory jobs had made manual farming uncommon across the continent.
• The Mana Magical Kingdom lacked enough Farmland Magic Machinery, and many unemployed farmers could no longer manage cultivation themselves.
• At the end of April, rioters in three Mana Magical Kingdom provinces attacked government offices and demanded the kingdom restore their right to work.

The Mana Magical Kingdom descended into economic collapse and widespread unrest after the Xinfei Merchant Guild and its partners withdrew, while Xu Yi refused to return despite the kingdom’s likely willingness to accept his terms. Xu Yi sold the Amli Merchant Guild ten large mana-powered ships for its expedition, then revealed he might join it on the Demoncloud Continent.

• Factories and merchant guilds in the Mana Magical Kingdom shut down, leaving workers unemployed and provoking unrest across more than half the kingdom.
• President Cruz gloated over the Mana Magical Kingdom’s troubles and asked whether Xu Yi would reconsider the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s withdrawal, but Xu Yi refused.
• Xu Yi urged Cruz to use the crisis to expand the Amli Merchant Guild’s presence in the kingdom, and Cruz denied having such plans.
• Cruz admitted that the Amli Merchant Guild lacked enough ships for its preparations, so Xu Yi offered to sell it ten large mana-powered ships.
• Cruz signed the contracts, and Xu Yi warned that additional ships might become available after the new shipyard was completed.
• Xu Yi said he might adjust plans after reaching the Demoncloud Continent, and Cruz was startled when he realized Xu Yi might go there too.

Xu Yi left the Sains Continent for the Demoncloud Continent, while President Cruz joined him after deciding to trust the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s plans. Xu Yi reflected on the rebellion in the Mana Magical Kingdom, which he had helped set in motion, as his airship squadron crossed the sea.

• Xu Yi told President Cruz he was going to the Demoncloud Continent, and Cruz learned that the Two Great Empires and the Lampari Kingdom were reducing their efforts to develop the seas and New Continent.
• President Cruz chose to follow Xu Yi to the Demoncloud Continent, trusting that the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s increased investment there would benefit the Amli Merchant Guild.
• A month and a half later, Xu Yi crossed the Endless Sea aboard a Mana Airship squadron after the Xinfei Merchant Guild publicly announced his departure.
• A rebellion in a province of the Mana Magical Kingdom killed its governor, declared the province self-governing, and blamed the kingdom’s policies for the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s withdrawal.
• Xu Yi anticipated that the Mana Magical Kingdom would struggle to suppress the rebellion and acknowledged that he had deliberately helped create its predicament and planned his public departure.

Xu Yi arrived at Akali’s overseas research base and found her conducting high-altitude experiments with dragons to measure magic-element fluctuations. He brought the completed Hovercraft for testing, and Cassandra greeted him with newly learned human etiquette.

• Xu Yi landed on the island research base with several elven guests and learned that Akali was conducting experiments in the sky.
• Xu Yi used his Magic Communication Box to locate Akali and flew up to meet her among several dragons.
• Akali explained that the dragons carried Simulators to collect data without the interference caused by human mages’ Flight Magic.
• Xu Yi told Akali that he had brought the completed Hovercraft, and she called the dragons back so they could stop helping with the tests.
• Cassandra transformed into a human girl, failed to recognize Xu Yi at first, then greeted him and shook his hand.

Xu Yi met with Cassandra and the dragons to discuss helping the Xinfei Merchant Guild promote Mana Illusion Films on the Demoncloud Continent, then spoke with Akali about her research and his other urgent business. The chapter ended with Xu Yi asking Akali whether she had heard of the Abyssal Demon Race.

• Xu Yi learned that Cassandra and the other dragons accepted Mana Illusion Films as payment for helping Akali.
• Xu Yi told Cassandra that the New Moon Merchant Guild planned to teach interested dragons how to make Mana Illusion Films, and she eagerly agreed to participate.
• Xu Yi returned to the island with Akali and the dragons, and Akali said her team was ready to calibrate the high-altitude mana signal beacons once the airships arrived.
• Akali discussed the possibility of reaching space with Xu Yi and described seeing the planet’s curvature from high in the sky.
• Xu Yi told Akali that his other business could affect humans and other races, then asked whether Cassandra had mentioned the Abyssal Demon Race.

Xu Yi led a team to an island near Space Island to investigate ruins left by the Abyssal Demon Race, whose civilization and departure from the world had fascinated him. They found a strange pillar beneath the island’s trees, and Xu Yi began examining it with magic.

• Xu Yi asked Elder Windini about the Abyssal Demon Race, and she explained that its survivors had left the world through a portal near Space Island after a devastating civil war.
• Xu Yi traveled with Akali, Elder Windini, and a small team to the island where scouts had found the ruins.
• The group cautiously crossed the island without encountering danger and reached a stone clearing beneath unusually thick trees.
• Xu Yi and Elder Windini examined a seamless pillar topped with a metallic-looking sphere, but neither knew its purpose.
• Xu Yi placed his palm on the pillar and channeled mana into it to see whether magic could reveal how it worked.

Xu Yi used precise magical energy to activate a faint glow in a pillar believed to contain an Abyssal Demon Race instrument, but stopped before risking damage. He sent Santander to bring Stille’s Mana X-Ray Projector research team, then planned to continue searching for ruins while waiting.

• Xu Yi stimulated the pillar with different forms of energy until simulated electricity made it glow.
• Xu Yi traced weak electrical currents through the pillar and found a complex, conductive metal structure inside.
• Xu Yi asked Santander to return to the Sains Continent and bring Stille’s Mana X-Ray Projector research team.
• Elder Windini confirmed that the glowing pillar let her perceive something with X-Ray Magic.
• Xu Yi left the island with the group, sent Santander ahead from Space Island, and assigned Akali to set up beacons while they searched for more ruins.

Xu Yi arrived at the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s base on the Demoncloud Continent, where railways and trade supported the guild’s growing influence. He learned that native tribes remained wary of humans, but believed their needs could eventually bring them into closer cooperation.

• Xu Yi left Space Island after assigning research teams to study the ruins and the Mana X-Ray Projector, while the airship squad continued searching for more ruins.
• Xu Yi crossed nearly four thousand kilometers and arrived at the guild’s eastern-coast base, where he saw the region’s new railway network.
• Barnett told Xu Yi that a freight train was carrying refined steel arrowheads to the Greenwater Tribe, which was expanding its territory against goblins.
• Xu Yi asked why the native tribes did not buy better weapons or work for the guild, and Barnett explained that they distrusted humans and could not afford military machinery.
• Xu Yi said the native races would become important labor for the guild and believed their own needs would make cooperation possible.

Xu Yi led the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s rapid territorial expansion and development on the Demoncloud Continent, then staged a land-reclamation ceremony to begin local farming. He hoped to make the base self-sufficient and draw native races into the guild’s growing enterprise.

• The Amli Merchant Guild expanded the base while the Xinfei Merchant Guild Guard Corps drove goblins from surrounding territory and secured mineral deposits.
• Under Xu Yi’s direction, the guild expanded its controlled area from forty thousand to fifty thousand square kilometers, building roads, railways, bunkers, and mana signal towers as it advanced.
• After the goblins’ repeated attacks failed, they came to treat the guild’s territory as a forbidden zone, and the guild paused its offensive to stabilize and develop its holdings.
• Xu Yi joined a public farmland-reclamation ceremony, then watched farmland magic machinery till several dozen hectares in little time.
• Xu Yi planned to plant thirty thousand hectares of wheat to reduce food shipments and instructed guild members to persuade native elves, dwarves, and gnomes to adopt farming and work with the guild.

Xu Yi met with three representatives of the Fire Dragon Tribe and agreed to protect the tribe in exchange for its cooperation with the Xinfei Merchant Guild. He appointed the fluent and sharp-minded Gamo as the tribe’s intermediary and his Special Advisor, leaving Gamo kneeling in gratitude.

• Barnett introduced three Fire Dragon Tribe representatives, and Gamo greeted Xu Yi in fluent Sains Continent Common Language.
• Gamo explained that he could speak the language but was still learning to read and write, and he said the tribe would cooperate even without a written contract.
• Barnett confirmed that the guild’s Guards Corps had rescued the Fire Dragon Tribe from a siege by more than ten thousand goblins.
• Xu Yi offered the tribe protection and possible additional help in return for following the guild’s arrangements.
• Xu Yi replaced Gamo’s construction-site job with work as the tribe’s intermediary and appointed him Special Advisor.
• Gamo knelt and bowed deeply before Xu Yi.

Xu Yi consolidated the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s territory on the Demoncloud Continent, recruited native humans, and warned President Cruz about using captured goblins as labor. As Xu Yi prepared to leave the continent for another destination, Barnett reported that the Candel Empire had declared war on the Mana Magical Kingdom.

• Xu Yi halted territorial expansion and focused on roads, railways, and recruiting local workers, while the Guild Guard Corps found three more human tribes.
• The Xinfei Merchant Guild recruited over two thousand workers from the tribes, and President Cruz captured three thousand goblins to labor on Amli Merchant Guild construction sites.
• Xu Yi warned Cruz that goblins could rebel, but Cruz dismissed the risk and said he planned to return to the Sains Continent the following month.
• Xu Yi said he would stay longer, then leave the Demoncloud Continent next month to handle matters elsewhere; he also said Freya could decide whether to succeed him.
• Barnett delivered news that the Candel Empire had declared war on the Mana Magical Kingdom.

Luo Meng worried that the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s silence over the Candel Empire’s invasion of the Mana Magical Kingdom signaled a deliberate shift in its policy while Xu Yi was away. His thoughts were interrupted when Arroyo arrived and said the City Lord wanted to see them immediately.

• Luo Meng listened as tavern patrons discussed the Candel Empire’s victories and its secretly developed Military Magic Machinery.
• Luo Meng wondered why the Xinfei Merchant Guild had made no comment on the war and considered whether Xu Yi’s absence and the removal of five thousand guards had been deliberate.
• Luo Meng reminded himself that the guild could still restrain the Candel Empire when Xu Yi returned, though he did not know when that would be.
• Arroyo found Luo Meng in the tavern, took his cup, and ordered him to come meet the City Lord.

Luo Meng and Arroyo discussed Xu Yi’s order for the Xinfei Merchant Guild to stay out of the war between the Candel Empire and the Mana Magical Kingdom, while the guild’s senior members debated the conflict’s effects on their business and the President’s intentions. Ankato suggested Xu Yi’s restraint might be tied to the Continental Peace Treaty’s time limit, but the chapter ended before he explained further.

• Luo Meng and Arroyo finalized plans with the Governor’s Mansion and Waterland City officials to establish an academy based on the Xinfei Academy model.
• Arroyo questioned why Xu Yi had not intervened in the Candel Empire’s invasion, and Luo Meng revealed that Xu Yi had ordered the guild to stay out of the conflict.
• Luo Meng worried that Xu Yi’s decisions and departure could end the continent’s eleven years of peace and stability.
• Ankato argued that the guild should avoid involvement in wars unless they harmed its business, while Li Thorpe and other executives described damage to guild operations.
• The executives acknowledged that they could not readily mobilize the Guards Corps, and Ankato suggested the Continental Peace Treaty’s time limit explained Xu Yi’s stance.

As the Candel Empire and the Mana Magical Kingdom continued their war, the Xinfei Merchant Guild sent aid to civilians without taking sides, prompting Barnett to question Xu Yi’s intentions. Xu Yi dismissed the struggle for supremacy on the Sains Continent and turned his attention to finding workers among the Demoncloud Continent’s indigenous races.

• The Xinfei Merchant Guild sent a relief team to aid civilians of the Mana Magical Kingdom, while both countries allowed it to operate.
• Barnett questioned Xu Yi about the relief effort, and Xu Yi said the guild could not keep making Sains Continent countries obey it.
• Xu Yi explained to himself that he cared more about advancing magic industry and civilization than conquering the Sains Continent.
• Xu Yi told Barnett that the guild would let Sains Continent countries fight without interfering in their affairs.
• Xu Yi and Barnett discussed the guild’s labor shortage on the Demoncloud Continent and the need to contact more indigenous tribes.

Xu Yi’s efforts expanded the Xinfei Merchant Guild’s base on the Demoncloud Continent, but the successful completion of Akali’s high-altitude mana signal beacons let him reconnect with his family across the distant continents. He promised Akali an island retreat and said he would return to Sains Continent before Freya’s birthday.

• Xu Yi recruited more than twenty thousand native workers and developed the Demoncloud Continent base into a network of factories, though the new workers still needed language and technical training.
• Akali called Xu Yi from Space Island and announced that she had completed the high-altitude mana signal beacons in less than two years.
• Akali reminded Xu Yi of his promise to give her a small island in the Endless Sea, and he agreed to let her choose one.
• Akali connected Xu Yi to Stille, and they excitedly asked after each other and their family.
• Freya spoke with Xu Yi, and he promised to return before her twenty-fifth birthday and asked how she would answer him then.