Chapter Summaries

Lu Mingfei returned to Earth after more than a century as Elden Lord, retaining unfamiliar supernatural power and meeting a boy who controlled dreams. Back at his aunt’s home, he investigated golden eyes and began suspecting that Earth’s hidden supernatural factions maintained the ordinary world’s calm.

• Lu Mingfei realized he had returned to Earth in a body carrying power akin to the Crucible, then encountered a golden-eyed boy who controlled a dream domain and asked to trade.
• After the boy vanished, Lu Mingfei welcomed the prospect of a supernatural world and resolved to prevent needless tragedy and follow his own will.
• Lu Mingfei alarmed his aunt, uncle, and Lu Mingze by eating several people’s worth of food, then returned to his room.
• Lu Mingfei searched online for golden pupils but found no useful information and considered whether hidden factions concealed supernatural powers from the public.
• Lu Mingfei opened an online forum and drafted a post claiming that a human’s eyes could turn gold and that he seemed to have superpowers.

Lu Mingfei met Cassell College representatives Ye Sheng and Jude Jiqu, demonstrated his Golden Eyes, and was confirmed as an S-Rank student. After officially joining the college, he prepared to leave for study abroad while reflecting on how much he had changed.

• Lu Mingfei met Ye Sheng and Jude Jiqu at the Regent Hotel, admitted that he had awakened his power, and activated his Golden Eyes to prove it.
• Ye Sheng and Jude Jiqu identified Lu Mingfei as an S-Rank, and Professor Guderian and Norma officially added him to Cassell College’s roster.
• Lu Mingfei revealed that he had brought a baseball bat in his violin case for self-defense, and Ye Sheng and Jude Jiqu welcomed him as their junior.
• Lu Mingfei walked through town, bought Xiaoshuohui from the newsstand, and told the old vendor he would soon be going abroad to study.
• Lu Mingfei bought groceries and bagged milk for his aunt on his way home.

Lu Mingfei accepted a dinner invitation from Nono, received the sword Red Skies from one of her associates, and met with his classmates while awaiting Professor Guderian. The chapter ended as Guderian arrived at the Regent Hotel and spotted Lu Mingfei.

• Lu Mingfei agreed to meet Nono and asked her to tell Professor Guderian that his family wanted to meet a teacher from Cassell College.
• Nono arranged to give Lu Mingfei a gift, and Sonic sent her mission footage of Lu Mingfei displaying his power.
• Lu Mingfei met Nono at the Regent Hotel, where she gave him the sword Red Skies and explained that its giver admired him.
• Ye Sheng invited Lu Mingfei to wait for Professor Guderian, and Lu Mingfei stayed to observe his classmates' interviews.
• Lu Mingfei agreed to attend a farewell gathering with Chen Wenwen, Zhao Menghua, and Su Xiaoqiang before they left the hotel.
• Professor Guderian arrived at the Regent Hotel and immediately fixed his gaze on Lu Mingfei.

Lu Mingfei reflected on the ordinary life he had finally experienced and accepted his identity as the Elden Lord, while Nono decided not to recruit him herself. At the literature society’s farewell gathering, Zhao Menghua used the screening to stage a love confession to Chen Wenwen.

• Lu Mingfei signed Cassell College’s agreements and left the hotel after Professor Guderian welcomed him.
• Nono told Sonic that Lu Mingfei’s unreadable demeanor troubled her and planned to observe him at the gathering.
• Lu Mingfei’s classmates arranged a movie outing, and his straightforward replies unsettled them as they adjusted to his new status.
• Lu Mingfei walked with Chen Wenwen, then reflected by the river on the life his former self had longed for and let that youthful vulnerability go.
• Nono sensed Lu Mingfei’s formidable resolve, abandoned her attempt to bring him to the Student Union, and watched him leave.
• At the cinema, Zhao Menghua gave Lu Mingfei formal clothes under the pretense of a speech, then began a staged confession to Chen Wenwen.

Lu Mingfei punched Zhao Menghua after the graduation confession spectacle, then left with Nono, who explained the danger the college saw in his sudden transformation. He said goodbye to his uncle’s family and reached Chicago, where he met Cassell College student Fingel while waiting for the mysterious train CC1000.

• Chen Wenwen accepted Zhao Menghua’s confession, and Lu Mingfei realized the crowd had been targeting him over his old crush.
• Lu Mingfei punched Zhao Menghua, briefly used his Golden Eyes to clear the boys who confronted him, and left the cinema with Nono.
• Nono told Lu Mingfei that the college feared his sudden change and warned him about dragon blood corrupting Hybrids; Lu Mingfei promised he would remain himself.
• Professor Guderian and Ye Sheng presented Lu Mingfei’s uncle and aunt with the college’s credentials, and a letter and photograph explained Lu Mingfei’s admission.
• Lu Mingfei said goodbye to his uncle, aunt, and Lu Mingze at the airport, then traveled to Chicago and waited for train CC1000.
• Fingel approached Lu Mingfei at the station asking for money, and Lu Mingfei gave him cash to buy them both food.

Lu Mingfei boarded the CC1000 Express for Cassell College, where Principal Angers explained his S-Rank admission and began his orientation on dragons. During the lesson, Lu Mingze drew Lu Mingfei into a dream and identified the painted dragon as Nidhogg.

• Fingel recognized Lu Mingfei as the S-Rank student and escorted him through the VIP entrance to the CC1000 Express.
• The conductor used his Word Spirit to avoid notice, then asked Lu Mingfei for an autograph after scanning his ticket.
• Principal Angers welcomed Lu Mingfei aboard the train, and Lu Mingfei sensed that the principal was dangerous.
• Angers said Lu Mingfei's parents, Lu Lincheng and Jovini, were both S-Ranks, then explained Cassell College and unveiled a painting of a dragon.
• Lu Mingfei found himself in a dream with Lu Mingze, who asked what death meant and named the dragon in the painting Nidhogg.

Lu Mingfei learned that Cassell College trained dragon slayers and wondered whether Lu Mingze’s warning concerned Nidhogg’s return. After arriving at the college, he met Pazzi, the Board of Trustees’ observer for his upcoming 3E Exam, and began adjusting to life in Fingel’s dorm room.

• Lu Mingfei witnessed Lu Mingze recreate the scene of Nidhogg’s death and declared that death now meant giving everything he had.
• Lu Mingze said he would put a little faith in Lu Mingfei, while Nono warned Guderian that Lu Mingfei seemed like a dragon saying goodbye to his humanity.
• Angers explained Cassell College’s mission to slay dragons and told Lu Mingfei that the Board of Trustees had arranged a special 3E Exam for him.
• Pazzi met Angers and Lu Mingfei at the college gates, saying he had come to supervise Lu Mingfei’s exam in two days.
• Fingel took Lu Mingfei to their filthy shared dorm room, and Lu Mingfei insisted that Fingel help clean it.
• Fingel pointed out how unusually much attention the college and Board of Trustees were giving Lu Mingfei, while Lu Mingfei resolved to seek answers rather than speculate.

Lu Mingfei tested Fingel’s past with a sudden sword attack, then took the 3E bloodline exam and entered a spirit vision shaped by memories of the Giant’s Flame. Lu Mingze glimpsed Lu Mingfei’s former world before Lu Mingfei ended the vision, leaving his exam result unclear.

• Lu Mingfei attacked Fingel with the Red Sky Sword, then accepted Fingel’s claim that he had repeated years for his girlfriend.
• Lu Mingfei entered the 3E exam room, where Manstein proctored him while Schneider and Pazzi watched from outside.
• Lu Mingfei heard the Dragon Script recording but felt no resonance until Lu Mingze appeared and brought him to a vision of the Giant’s Cauldron.
• Lu Mingfei recalled the burning Erdtree and asked why someone would accept a destructive fate as divine destiny.
• Lu Mingfei shoved Lu Mingze into the cauldron to end the vision.

Lu Mingfei learned that Hybrid genes gradually transform from human to dragon, and Angers explained how the hidden dragon personality and advancing transformation were connected to the path to godhood. Angers left the transformation’s final outcome unexplained.

• Angers explained that a Hybrid carried conflicting human and dragon personalities, with the human side usually dominant.
• Lu Mingfei connected the dragon personality and Hybrid origins to the path to godhood and asked whether Hybrid genes were unstable.
• Angers said dragon genes were aggressive and caused irreversible changes from human to dragon.
• Angers explained that as the dragon genes altered a Hybrid, the human portion was devoured and the dragon portion awakened further.
• Lu Mingfei asked whether that transformation was becoming a god.

Lu Mingfei joined the Kuimen Project to search the Three Gorges Reservoir for the Bronze and Fire King’s palace. As the dive began, Lu Mingze warned him about the danger below, but Lu Mingfei chose to continue and received permission to dive with Professor Mance and the Key.

• Angers told Lu Mingfei that Blood Rage could push hybrids past the critical bloodline limit, then revealed the Kuimen Project had likely found the Bronze and Fire King’s palace.
• Lu Mingfei practiced Blood Rage, received Angers’s call to join the mission, and left for China with Fingel’s meals uneaten.
• Professor Mance led the operation aboard the Moniakh while Ye Sheng and Jude Jiqu began their descent into the reservoir.
• Lu Mingze appeared to Lu Mingfei, confirmed the Dragon King was below, and urged him to stop, but Lu Mingfei refused.
• Mance received approval for Lu Mingfei to dive with him and the Key, while the woman warned Lu Mingfei that an underwater earthquake might have endangered the other divers.

Lu Mingfei and Professor Mans opened the entrance to the Bronze and Fire King's palace, but Lu Mingfei cut his signal cable and revealed that something inside had invited him in. Mans changed the mission plan, sending Lu Mingfei into the palace with Ye Sheng and Jude Jiqu while he withdrew to call for reinforcements.

• Lu Mingfei, Professor Mans, Ye Sheng, and Jude Jiqu reached an immense bronze wall underwater, and Mans used Word Spirit: Dust-Free Land to create an air-filled domain around them.
• Professor Mans's baby opened a mouth-shaped entrance in the bronze wall after the team delivered blood to the living-spirit guardian.
• Lu Mingfei cut his signal cable and said that someone was inviting him inside, alarming Professor Mans, Ye Sheng, and Jude Jiqu.
• Professor Mans questioned Lu Mingfei and, after believing his report, ordered him to join Ye Sheng and Jude Jiqu while changing their orders to kill anything living they encountered.
• Professor Mans withdrew to report the threat and summon reinforcements as Lu Mingfei, Ye Sheng, and Jude Jiqu prepared to enter the Bronze City.

Lu Mingfei and his companions entered the Bronze City’s great hall, where a gunshot triggered its gears and snake-faced statues, then opened the way to Norton’s sleeping chamber. In the dark corridor, Lu Mingfei saw Lu Mingze and began telling him a story about a frightened man who met a soulless wanderer in the Lands Between.

• Lu Mingfei, Ye Sheng, and Jude Jiqu reached the great hall and found its bronze tree, alchemical machinery, and rows of snake-faced statues.
• Lu Mingfei sensed a statue watching him, slashed its silver eyes with Red Skies, and hurried toward a gunshot as the hall’s gears and statues came alive.
• Ye Sheng explained that Jude Jiqu’s Dragon Script photographs had triggered spirit vision and that she had activated the Bronze City’s defenses.
• The machinery stopped, and the wall behind the bronze tree opened to reveal a doorway leading toward Norton’s sleeping chamber.
• Lu Mingfei saw Lu Mingze in the corridor while Ye Sheng and Jude Jiqu appeared frozen, then told him a story about a coward encountering a decaying wanderer in the Lands Between.

Lu Mingfei and the others found the Dragon King's bedchamber, where a hidden device released a dangerous substance and triggered the Dragon King's awakening. Their bomb failed to stop the Bronze City's violent transformation, and rising water trapped them in a sealed cavity as they searched for an escape.

• Lu Mingfei opened the bedchamber's bronze door with his blood, and the team searched its rooms for the Dragon King's egg.
• Jude Jiqu found a mechanism in the low table, and Ye Sheng activated it, revealing a hidden compartment and a jar contaminated by an unknown substance.
• Ye Sheng warned the others that the compartment was a trap, and the team fled as the jar began corroding and something growled behind them.
• Ye Sheng detonated the bomb, but the Bronze City shook violently, severed the team's signal, and sealed their passage.
• Ye Sheng, Jude Jiqu, and Lu Mingfei reached a cavity where the rising water trapped them, and Ye Sheng searched for an underwater opening.

Lu Mingfei confronted the Dragon King alone in the flooded Bronze City and fought through his fire and scales to break the defenses on his left arm. The Dragon King recognized Red Skies as his brother’s sword, then a brilliant white light engulfed the hall.

• Ye Sheng realized the Bronze City was drawing in fresh air, and he and Jude Jiqu removed their helmets.
• Lu Mingfei sensed the Dragon King approaching and told Ye Sheng and Jude Jiqu to retreat while he stayed behind to cover them.
• Lu Mingfei activated Blood Rage, reassured his teammates, and entered the great hall to face the Dragon King.
• The Dragon King attacked with explosive flames, but Lu Mingfei dodged through the statues and closed in despite his burns.
• Lu Mingfei struck the same point on the Dragon King’s left arm five times, breaking through its defenses.
• The Dragon King said Red Skies was his brother’s sword, and a brilliant white light filled the hall.

Lu Mingfei rejected Lu Mingze’s contract and awakened his Third-Stage Blood Rage, then fought back against the Dragon King in the collapsing Bronze Hall. He tore off the Dragon King’s wings, but the Dragon King unleashed a storm of lightning, molten metal, and rising magma around him.

• Lu Mingfei’s Second-Stage Blood Rage let him perceive the Dragon King’s attacks, but a feint allowed the Dragon King to tear off his arm and leave him near death.
• Lu Mingze offered Lu Mingfei a contract in exchange for granting his wishes and promised to help him defeat the Dragon King.
• Lu Mingfei refused the deal, declared himself a Tarnished warrior, and awakened his Third-Stage Blood Rage, regrowing his arm and forming wings.
• Lu Mingfei charged the Dragon King, seized his wings, and tore them off.
• The Dragon King answered with purple lightning, falling blades of molten bronze, and a rising magma cage as Lu Mingfei faced his furious assault.

Lu Mingfei defeated Constantine and discovered an incomplete Great Rune inside him, warning Lu Mingze that something beyond Nidhogg had entered their world. After gaining control of the Rune’s fire authority, Lu Mingfei killed Constantine’s arriving Dragon Servant and found no Rune within it.

• Lu Mingfei approached the mortally wounded Constantine while Lu Mingze warned that a Dragon Servant was approaching.
• Lu Mingfei found an incomplete Great Rune inside Constantine and told Lu Mingze that the sweet dream was over and that a greater power had arrived.
• Lu Mingfei took the Great Rune’s authority and used it to cool the bronze hall and contain the recovering Constantine.
• A Dragon Servant entered the hall and gathered fire, but Lu Mingfei seized control of its flames and pinned it with bronze spikes.
• Lu Mingfei tore the Dragon Servant apart with dark metal and found no Rune in its body.
• Lu Mingfei questioned why the Dragon Kings did not awaken together, and Lu Mingze answered that it was fate.

Lu Mingfei restored Red Skies, rescued Ye Sheng and Jude Jiqu from the flooded Bronze City, and brought Constantine to a hotel. After giving a misleading mission report, he took Constantine to Angers and revealed that he had come from inside the Bronze City.

• Lu Mingfei reforged Red Skies and carried the unconscious Constantine through the Bronze City toward the exit.
• Lu Mingfei opened the flooded passages so Ye Sheng and Jude Jiqu could escape, then surfaced with Constantine.
• Lu Mingfei used Norma to book a hotel suite and considered how to conceal Constantine from Cassell College’s leadership.
• Lu Mingfei gave Professor Mans a false account of the mission and said he had found Constantine on the riverbank.
• Lu Mingfei met Angers privately and identified Constantine as someone from inside the Bronze City, then stopped Angers’s Folding Knife with two fingers.

Lu Mingfei negotiated with Angers to protect Constantine in exchange for helping hunt Dragon Kings, then brought Constantine to Cassell College under the identity of Wang Wei. After Angers implanted explosives and collected samples from him, Lu Mingfei arranged for him to live in the dormitory.

• Lu Mingfei persuaded Angers to keep Constantine's identity secret and agreed to join the fight whenever information about a Dragon King surfaced.
• Angers and Lu Mingfei settled additional terms, including research and explosives for Constantine, selective class attendance for Lu Mingfei, and combat instruction.
• After the Three Gorges salvage operation, Angers took Lu Mingfei and Constantine to Cassell College, where he implanted explosives near Constantine's heart and collected bone and blood samples.
• Angers arranged for Constantine to be registered as Wang Wei and assigned to Guderian, while Lu Mingfei confirmed Constantine accepted the identity.
• Lu Mingfei persuaded Fingel to move across the hall by promising him full marks in his practical combat elective.
• Constantine settled into the dormitory and quietly watched the sky from beside the window.

Lu Mingfei learned how Free Day worked and decided to challenge Caesar and Chu Zihang alone, while Fingel spread the claim across the Night Watch Forum. The rumor drew attention and support from students, and Lu Mingfei remained focused on his classes without realizing how widely people were discussing him.

• Fingel explained that Free Day was a battle between the Student Union and the Lionheart Society, fought with harmless Frigg Bullets.
• Lu Mingfei refused to join either faction and said he would defeat Caesar and Chu Zihang at the same time, while Fingel offered to gather intelligence.
• Fingel fueled Night Watch Forum rumors about Lu Mingfei and promoted his one-man challenge, prompting Caesar and Nono to discuss his intentions.
• Lu Mingfei attended alchemy chemistry class and learned from Alexia that the whole college knew about the Free Day rumor.
• Alexia suggested Lu Mingfei start a club, but he declined, and she later joined his supporters on the Night Watch Forum.

Lu Mingfei joined the Freedom Day competition by offering a perfect elective-course score as his stake, while learning that Caesar and Chu Zihang had also agreed to include him. Lu Mingze warned him that Norton might seek out his own kind because of blood sorrow, and the story left with Fingel opening the betting as Lu Mingfei drew few wagers.

• Lu Mingfei reviewed Caesar's and Chu Zihang's profiles, then told Fingel he had recognized his plan to shape public opinion and make the betting seem legitimate.
• Lu Mingfei challenged the forum participants, offered a perfect elective-course score as his stake, and received agreement from Caesar and Chu Zihang.
• Lu Mingfei told Fingel to bet ten thousand on him and returned to studying alchemy to restore or improve Red Skies.
• Lu Mingze appeared to Lu Mingfei in a dream, explained blood sorrow, and suggested that Norton would seek out his own kind.
• Lu Mingze disappeared, and Fingel opened the Freedom Day betting with only a hundred wagered on Lu Mingfei.