Chapter Summaries

The teams argued over outside helpers before Qiluo joined the students’ side in exchange for cucumbers. She was sent off after seriously fouling a player, while the chaotic match continued.

• The students protested Jielusi playing for the POW camp and demanded an outside helper of their own.
• The organizers rejected a massive Silver Dragon but approved Qiluo after the POW camp members agreed to her cucumber offer.
• Qiluo replaced a student-team forward, while Ruixiuli and the Fate Manipulator resumed their contest on the field.
• Qiluo committed a handball, and Jielusi was called offside as the teams fought over the player serving as the ball.
• Qiluo charged into a defender, caught the ball-player, then pierced his arm with her horn while attempting a header.
• The referee gave Qiluo a red card, and security guards dragged her from the field as the injured player was taken for medical care.

After Zijin found a moment of comfort watching the football match with Su Ming, Katharine learned that the Saint Rank Yexiya might have stolen another woman’s identity. The celebrations aboard the Pansy continued, while Su Ming refused to let the Human Bone Machine perform its heavy metal set.

• Su Ming brought Zijin fruit wine, and she silently hoped she would not lose anyone else important to her.
• A Star Sand scholar told Katharine that Yexiya’s signature differed from the real Yexiya’s handwriting, suggesting the Saint Rank swordswoman was an impostor.
• Katharine compared the documents, recognized the mystery surrounding Yexiya’s sudden rise to Saint Rank, and sent the intelligence to Su Ming.
• The prisoner-of-war camp football team won the championship, and Zijin presented its captain with the trophy.
• Su Ming refused the Human Bone Machine’s requests to perform heavy metal at the Pansy’s variety show because the noise might upset the dragons aboard.

Su Ming and Zijin discovered that the Plundering Clock’s true faith involved Jörmungandr and a coming apocalypse, linking its symbols to the Rift Tribe ruins and raising the possibility that Yexiya came from Eden. The Pansy reached Green Thorn Port to resupply, while some trainees went ashore and the dragons flew home to Dragon Valley.

• Zijin concluded that the Plundering Clock had infiltrated the orcs, and Su Ming agreed that the sea monster attacks must serve a broader purpose.
• Su Ming and Zijin learned that the Plundering Clock’s members truly believed Jörmungandr would bring a calamity called The End, and recognized its symbols from the Rift Tribe ruins.
• Su Ming wondered whether Yexiya had come from Eden, leaving him and Zijin shocked by the possibility.
• The Pansy anchored outside Green Thorn Port, where Su Ming allowed a disciplined third of the trainees to go ashore and buy supplies.
• The Silver Dragon Guard and Lanlie took leave of Su Ming and Zijin, then flew toward Dragon Valley as the people of Green Thorn Port watched.

Su Ming discovered that Zijin had begun growing dragon scales as her Faerie Dragon traits awakened in her human body. Stacy explained that the scales contained powerful magical talents but required treatment at the Dragon Race's Land of Ancestral Spirits, leaving Su Ming considering how to arrange the journey.

• Su Ming found Zijin in her cabin with a newly grown purple scale between her brows and learned she had four more below her chest.
• Stacy explained that Zijin's human body had developed chimerism from Faerie Dragon traits implanted during her embryonic development.
• Stacy warned that the forehead scale could affect Zijin's brain as it grew, while the chest scales were less dangerous.
• Stacy revealed that the scales held the talents Elemental Resonance and Whispers of the Stars, preserved through the efforts of Master Howard, the Copper Cormorant, and Sebastian, the White Pheasant physician.
• Stacy said both areas needed treatment with an ancient magic array at the Dragon Race's Land of Ancestral Spirits, and Su Ming considered using his invitation from Gelie to arrange it.

Su Ming and Zijin prepared to go ashore from the Pansy and flew to Green Thorn Port to shop. They landed safely in the town square, where the goblins left them alone.

• Stacy joked that Zijin's forehead scale needed treatment too, and Zijin hid it beneath her hair.
• Su Ming suggested buying Zijin a hat, and Zijin borrowed his phone before changing into clothes for town.
• Su Ming arranged for Ruixiuli and Jielusi to guard the Pansy while he and Zijin went shopping.
• Su Ming and Zijin flew from the ship toward Green Thorn Port, using their spells instead of taking a ferry.
• The pair landed in the town's central square, and the goblins kept their distance.

Su Ming and Zijin explored Green Thorn Port, where Zijin explained the port’s role in Dragon Valley’s trade. They shopped for a hat, but the goblin shopkeeper demanded an inflated price and threatened to call the guards.

• Zijin explained that Dragon Valley relied on Green Thorn Port because human and goblin companies controlled much of its trade and Dragon Valley lacked facilities for maintaining ocean-going ships.
• Su Ming found a revealing, heavily mosaicked photo Zijin had taken of her scales on his phone, and she teased him about staring at them.
• Zijin silenced the goblin shopkeeper with a spell so she and Su Ming could browse the human clothing shop in peace.
• Su Ming found an apricot-colored knitted hat with cat ears and pink paw prints, then decided to buy it despite Zijin’s annoyance.
• After Su Ming lifted the Silence spell, the shopkeeper demanded one gold coin and a pair of gloves for the hat, calling it punishment for disrespecting Hekegela and threatening to summon the guards.

Zijin intimidated a goblin merchant into fair prices, while Yumier placed a bulk order for art books in Green Thorn Port. A disguised goblin was exposed during the Pansy’s security check, and Ruixiuli confronted him as Trickster Saxon.

• Zijin cracked a shop’s floor with a casual tap, frightening the goblin shopkeeper into charging only thirty copper coins.
• Zijin explained to Su Ming that goblin merchants in Green Thorn Port usually cheated customers, then questioned why he had bought a cat-ear hat.
• Yumier ordered fifty art books from the Eastern Continent branch of Sang River Illustration Publishing House and received a group discount.
• Students returned to the Pansy, where security alarms went off when a short, heavily laden student passed through the inspection gate.
• The intruder revealed himself as Trickster Saxon, and Ruixiuli appeared with a bone blade and accused him of causing trouble for the Temple of Light.

Saxon escaped after Ruixiuli exposed his disguise, but Ruixiuli and Jielusi pursued him to Green Thorn Port. Bowers intercepted Saxon at the docks, while a goblin thief helped him flee and split up to evade their pursuers.

• Ruixiuli explained that Scholar Bay Owl’s X-ray baggage security scanner had detected the weapons and explosives Saxon had concealed.
• Saxon vanished and fled toward Green Thorn Port, and Ruixiuli and Jielusi took off after him.
• Saxon disguised himself as a porter at the docks, but Bowers attacked and forced him to reveal himself behind a magic shield.
• A goblin thief attacked Bowers, then sped after Saxon as Bowers pursued them.
• Saxon ordered the thief to split up with him and return to the Green Thorn Port safe house after losing their tails.

Ruixiuli, Jielusi, and Bowers pursued Bulukka through Green Thorn Port while Su Ming and Zijin went after Saxon. Bulukka lured his pursuers to a hidden passage in the lower district, where a defensive shield blocked Ruixiuli’s attack.

• Zijin sent Ruixiuli, Jielusi, and Bowers after Bulukka while she and Su Ming pursued Saxon.
• Bulukka used disguises and the crowded streets to evade his three pursuers, but they kept tracking his magic fluctuations.
• Bulukka led the chase into Green Thorn Port’s lower district, where he grew worried that he would be driven into the open.
• Bulukka reached a hidden passage beneath wrecked alchemical machinery and retreated inside, confident the hideout would protect him.
• Ruixiuli launched a bone blade at the passage, but the goblin defensive shield activated and stopped it.

Ruixiuli pursued Bulukka into a foul underground hideout while Bowers and Jielusi guarded the entrance. Bulukka escaped the explosion through a concealed exit, but Ruixiuli had sent an undead puppet in his place and intercepted him with his companions.

• Ruixiuli shattered his bone blade into spikes, sending several through the weakened shield to wound Bulukka in the passage.
• Bowers dismantled the entrance defenses, and Ruixiuli crawled into the tunnels while Jielusi and Bowers stayed outside.
• Ruixiuli found Bulukka hiding in the underground refuge, and Bulukka triggered an explosion before escaping through a concealed exit.
• Bulukka changed his clothes and disguised his appearance, but Ruixiuli, Bowers, and Jielusi appeared and surrounded him.
• Ruixiuli revealed that he had sent an undead puppet into the refuge, and Jielusi bound Bulukka with a spell.

Ruixiuli’s group nearly secured Bulukka before Saxon’s belt triggered an explosion, while Su Ming and Zijin cornered Saxon in Green Thorn Port’s central district. Their encounter ended with the arrival of Leoni, a ranger who introduced himself to them.

• Ruixiuli pulled Jielusi away and kicked Bowers clear when Bulukka’s energy suddenly surged, but Saxon’s belt exploded and pulverized Bulukka.
• Su Ming and Zijin followed Saxon’s aura through the central district, where Zijin used her cat-ear hat and playful act to make Saxon lose his disguise as a vendor.
• Saxon revealed himself and used his robe to blur his form, while Su Ming and Zijin confronted him.
• Zijin cast Shadow Shock to drive the watching goblins from the area.
• A human from the Northern Lands introduced himself as Leoni the ranger and greeted Su Ming and Zijin as Bone King and Bay Owl.

Su Ming, Zijin, and Leoni cornered Saxon, but the trickster’s scheme separated Su Ming from the others and left him facing a disguised goblin expert. Su Ming summoned the Silver Dragon Guard, who overwhelmed Saxon, while Zijin returned to find Su Ming safe.

• Su Ming and Zijin joined Leoni in attacking Saxon, and Leoni’s Life-Pursuing Arrow and Zijin’s magic forced the trickster to flee.
• Saxon’s plan broke Leoni’s arrow lock and sent Zijin after a disguised goblin expert, leaving Su Ming alone with the apparent Leoni.
• The apparent Leoni transformed into a goblin and lunged at Su Ming, but Su Ming called back the Silver Dragon Guard.
• The Silver Dragons trapped Saxon and batted him back whenever he tried to escape, while Zijin returned and found Su Ming unharmed.
• The Silver Dragons shattered Saxon’s shield and pinned him beneath a claw, leaving him badly injured as one dragon warned the others not to stomp him to death.

Su Ming’s group captured Saxon after defeating the ambush at Green Thorn Port, then learned the Plundering Clock had supplied him with information about Leoni. Su Ming sent the Pansy toward Dragon Gorge Port while he, Zijin, and Stacy flew with Lanlie to Dragon Valley to meet the Dragon King, where Zijin explained some dragon customs.

• Zijin stripped Saxon of his equipment and clothes, burned away his hair, and bound him with magic suppression and iron chains.
• Ruixiuli and the others returned with Bulukka’s soul, while Su Ming assigned Bowers to interrogate Saxon.
• Su Ming arranged repairs and compensation in Green Thorn Port, then learned Saxon had attacked for the Plundering Clock and had received information about Leoni from it.
• Su Ming proposed sending Saxon to Northern Ice Island as a prisoner and laborer, and Zijin reluctantly agreed.
• Su Ming, Zijin, and Stacy left the fleet aboard Lanlie for Dragon Valley, where Zijin discussed dragon relatives and the consequences of dragons killing one another.

Fifteen years earlier, healer Stacy and her young bodyguard Ruixiuli traveled into the Gravel Scale Desert to help Master Shadu investigate the Gravel Scale Tribe’s disrupted physiological cycles. After Shadu led them to a human village to wait for nightfall, they met the villagers and gathered medicinal herbs, ending with Stacy teasing Ruixiuli over a child mistaking him for a girl.

• Stacy and Ruixiuli lost their way in the Gravel Scale Desert before Shadu found them by following the scent of specially made skin oil.
• Shadu carried Stacy and Ruixiuli across the dunes to a human village, explaining that the Gravel Scale Tribe was active at night.
• Stacy and Ruixiuli settled in the village, where Stacy befriended the children and discussed desert ailments with the old priest.
• Ruixiuli gathered medicinal herbs with Stacy and the village children, while Lulu insisted he looked like a girl.
• Lulu grabbed Ruixiuli between the legs to confirm he was a boy, and Stacy laughed as Ruixiuli threatened to give her a massage in return.

Stacy and Ruixiuli investigated a reproductive disorder affecting the lizardmen, which had caused unintended pregnancies and threatened hatchlings after the rainy season. Their inquiry began as they learned how the tribe coped with the crisis and saw parents surrender eggs they could not keep alive.

• Shadu brought Lulu, Stacy, and Ruixiuli to the lizardman camp, where shamans explained that afflicted lizardmen were entering heat and mating uncontrollably.
• Stacy questioned the shamans and recorded the disorder’s history and spread, then proposed contaminated oasis water or a mutated food plant as possible causes.
• Ruixiuli realized the disorder threatened the lizardmen’s food supply for hatchlings, and the group decided to investigate water sources and food crops at dawn.
• Ruixiuli and Stacy met the druid merchant Leonite, and Stacy bought sun-protection ointment while Shadu bought Lulu an aloe ice pop.
• The next day, Stacy and Ruixiuli surveyed water sources and food crops with Shadu’s guidance before returning to Date Camp.
• A lizardman couple gave their eggs to the shaman because the drought made the hatchlings’ survival unlikely, and the shaman prepared to bury them in the ancestral land.

Stacy, Ruixiuli, and Shadu investigated the lizardfolk’s Out-of-Season Estrus Disorder with help from Lulu, a knowledgeable young guide. Lulu’s map-reading revealed that the disorder followed caravan routes, and the group set out to pursue the suspicious merchant Leonite.

• Lulu convinced Stacy and Ruixiuli to let her guide their desert investigation, and Ruixiuli treated the cuts on her hands from weaving yucca gloves.
• Over two days, Lulu led Stacy, Ruixiuli, and Shadu between water sources and edible plants as they searched for signs of contamination or disease.
• Stacy found no abnormal substances in food plants or pathogens in the wild animals they examined.
• While looking at Stacy’s map, Lulu recognized that its marked lines resembled caravan routes, leading Stacy to suspect that someone had caused the disorder deliberately.
• Ruixiuli connected the disorder’s five-year timeline to Leonite’s arrival, and Shadu decided to investigate her caravan.
• Lulu said Leonite had left for Salt Flat Camp and offered a shortcut, so Shadu prepared to pursue her before morning.

Ruixiuli, Shadu, and Lulu pursued Leonite and discovered that she was transporting lizardman eggs, but their confrontation turned into a battle when Leonite attacked. Shadu revealed himself as a Saint Rank war shaman and overwhelmed Leonite with his sand magic.

• Lulu guided Ruixiuli and Shadu along a hidden path to the main road, where they followed fresh camel tracks toward Salt Flat Camp.
• Ruixiuli found lizardman eggs among Leonite's caravan cargo, but Shadu halted him because Leonite had legally bought them under the Desert Trade Convention.
• As Ruixiuli and Shadu pretended to retreat, Lulu accused Leonite of casting the spell that made lizardmen go into heat, prompting Leonite to attack.
• Leonite struck at Ruixiuli and Shadu, but Shadu blocked her claws with an ancient staff while Ruixiuli sent Lulu away from the fight.
• Leonite ambushed what she thought was Shadu, only for the figure to crumble into sand; Shadu then trapped her in a sandstorm and revealed he was a Saint Rank war shaman.

Dragons gathered to witness Zijin’s trials, and she demonstrated her strength before teaching Su Ming how to fight a larger opponent. At the Land of Ancestral Spirits, the bloodline ritual began: Zijin’s elemental power was suppressed, and Su Ming was prepared to receive the Whispers of the Stars origin.

• Mo Yuan explained that dragons had gathered to see Zijin, and she defeated a Blue Dragon and a Red Dragon by using her domain and Wing Cross-Joint Binding Technique.
• Zijin appointed Su Ming to fight a young Green Dragon in her place, and he defeated the dragon by dispelling his flight magic and disrupting his perception, though the dragon’s breath blasted him into the woods.
• Stacy led Su Ming and Mo Yuan to the altar and explained how the Dragon Race used its array to purify bloodlines; Zijin then stopped Stacy from stripping Su Ming under the pretext of a medical examination.
• Stacy and the elders activated the array, suppressed Zijin’s elemental power, and used its runes to remove the purple scales from her chest.
• Zijin leaned her forehead against Su Ming’s, and Grand Elder Zhimeng restarted the array while Stacy suppressed Su Ming’s mental domain to prepare him for the Whispers of the Stars origin implantation.

Su Ming chose Sapphire Bay as the site for Final Bone Mad Machines’ new port and began construction with the help of the Dragon Race and Zijin’s terrain magic. As the work got underway, Su Ming’s mental seal faded, revealing the constant information streams of his newly fused Whispers of the Stars.

• Su Ming woke to find Zijin trimming his hair with a knife, and she explained that Stacy’s seal still prevented them from using their powers.
• Su Ming, Zijin, and Stacy cooked field mice after growing tired of fruit, then Mo Yuan took Su Ming and Zijin to survey Dragon Gorge Port and nearby Sapphire Bay.
• Su Ming selected Sapphire Bay for the new port, confirmed the site with Dodder’s engineers, and arranged to lease the surrounding coast and bay.
• The Pansy arrived in Sapphire Bay with more than a thousand members of Final Bone Mad Machines, and Su Ming assigned teams to begin building Sapphire Port.
• Zijin used terrain magic to raise piers and level the shore while undead laborers began construction, and Su Ming’s seal dissipated, exposing him to the mental pressure of Whispers of the Stars.
• Zijin gave Su Ming Spirit Wall Crystal Barrier accessories to filter the whispers and advised him to adapt gradually.

Su Ming completed the initial setup at Sapphire Port, coordinated Zijin’s Dragon Race reforms, and used aerial surveys to select Red Ridge as the site of Ruby Base. After organizing construction and discovering dragons’ reluctance to do hard labor, he began devising ways to create demand for their work and spending, ending with plans for a dragon-focused restaurant and entertainment chain called Chicken Dinner Internet Cafe.

• Su Ming installed power, lighting, communications, and security systems at Sapphire Port while Zijin studied a proposal for reorganizing Dragon Race administration.
• Zijin departed for the Dragon Court with Mo Yuan, while Sangzi told Su Ming that photon-transfer testing was scheduled and presented Earth’s analysis of the Dragon Race’s EHD flight technique.
• A Black Dragon delivered Dragon Valley’s meteorological records, and Su Ming used the Rainbow No. 5 to survey the region after dragons had destroyed the Rainbow No. 4.
• Su Ming identified Red Ridge as the site for Ruby Base, confirmed its sulfur deposits, and secured an agreement for forty-five Blue Dragons led by Lan Mao to relocate in exchange for gold.
• Su Ming organized the move to Ruby Base and learned from Yin'er that hiring dragons for physical labor was expensive, prompting him to plan ways to create consumer demand among them.
• Su Ming assigned the Dodder Group custom dragon products, including nail clippers and a flight posture corrector, while his trainees planned a food-and-entertainment chain called Chicken Dinner Internet Cafe.