Chapter Summaries

Xie Juanhan, a dragon and chef, accidentally crossed into another world and found food and shelter in a town. After tasting the local cuisine, he began considering the unfamiliar ingredients and possibilities around him.

• After leaving his restaurant job, Xie Juanhan flew through a spacetime rift and arrived in a world of forests, meadows, and horse-drawn carriages.
• Xie Juanhan descended into a nearby town, changed into human form, and bought local clothes from a tailor.
• Xie Juanhan followed the tailor’s recommendation to an adventurers’ tavern and ordered smoked meat bread, slow-cooked beef, and salad.
• Xie Juanhan enjoyed the salad and beef, then realized the smoked meat in his bread was fish and appreciated its flavor.

Xie Juanhan searched the port and its surroundings for information about spacetime rifts, then flew into the Magic Forest to find a powerful local dragon. He met Telingewei and realized the stable world made a rift home unlikely, while Telingewei recognized Xie Juanhan as a divine creature from another plane.

• Xie Juanhan overheard tavern patrons discuss a gold-loving dragon from the Magic Forest and decided to seek it out.
• Xie Juanhan searched the port city for information about spacetime rifts but found nothing and spent nearly all his gold.
• Xie Juanhan flew into the Magic Forest and followed the powerful fluctuations of a creature deep within it.
• Xie Juanhan encountered Telingewei, whose immense power suggested the world was a stable first-class spacetime where a rift home was unlikely.
• Telingewei recognized that Xie Juanhan was not from his plane and regarded him as a divine, elegant, and powerful creature.

Xie Juanhan learned from Telingewei that a rare, enormous thunderstorm had opened the spacetime rift that brought him to this world, and that he had no clear way to return. He left to consider his next steps, but a hostile magic deer attacked him, forcing him to kill it.

• Xie Juanhan met Telingewei, who confirmed that he came from another plane and said the recent thunderstorm had likely created the rift.
• Telingewei explained that spacetime was stable and that only an enormous thunderstorm might crack a plane, leaving Xie Juanhan doubtful he could recreate one.
• Xie Juanhan left Telingewei's territory and considered staying nearby while he learned about the world and waited for another opportunity.
• A herd of deer confronted Xie Juanhan by a stream, and the lead deer attacked him with a fiery breath.
• Xie Juanhan dodged the deer's attacks, killed it with a dagger, and realized it was likely a magic beast.

Xie Juanhan prepared and ate grilled venison from a deer, discovering that its meat was rich in energy and that it contained a magic core. He met small, intelligent creatures carrying the local dragon’s scent, fed them, and ended the night wondering whether to raise some.

• Xie Juanhan butchered a deer by the stream, found a pale red crystal in its heart, and stored it in his dragon scale space.
• Xie Juanhan grilled and ate the deer’s liver and venison, finding both delicious and full of energy.
• A group of round, furry little beasts watched Xie Juanhan from the bushes, and he noticed that they carried the local dragon’s scent.
• Xie Juanhan tossed the remaining venison to the little beasts, then stroked one as the others gathered around and fell asleep beside him.
• Xie Juanhan wondered whether the creatures were related to the local dragon and whether he could raise a few.

Xie Juanhan followed the little creatures to a hot spring and a collapsed stone house beside a village, finding a promising place to settle. Telingewei learned from his companion beasts that Xie Juanhan had arrived in the Magic Forest, while Xie Juanhan slept beneath the unfamiliar stars and woke at dawn.

• Xie Juanhan asked the little creatures to find him a suitable place to live, and they led him along the edge of Telingewei's territory.
• The little creatures showed Xie Juanhan a hot spring and a collapsed stone house across the river from a village, and he decided it would make a good shelter.
• Xie Juanhan thanked the little creatures, promised them a meal after repairing the house, then bathed and slept on a warm stone beneath the stars.
• Telingewei caught his companion beasts sneaking into his cave and learned from their memories that Xie Juanhan had settled at the edge of the Magic Forest.
• At dawn, Xie Juanhan briefly opened his eyes in his dragon form, then rolled over and went back to sleep.

Xie Juanhan began clearing the ruined house and let the little creatures help, then followed them into the forest to catch their desired prey. He failed to catch a fast white bird, and the little creatures rushed into its deep burrow to confront it.

• Xie Juanhan froze the ruined house to kill the fierce insects, then began clearing the stones and weeds.
• The little creatures helped Xie Juanhan move the stones, and he agreed to hunt them something to eat.
• The little creatures led Xie Juanhan through the forest to a fluffy white bird they wanted him to catch.
• Xie Juanhan lunged at the white bird in dragon form, but it escaped into a deep hole beneath a tree.
• Two little creatures led Xie Juanhan away, then returned to the burrow and growled into it.

Xie Juanhan caught a white bird with the little ones’ help, and they brought him seasoning leaves and two golden pots. He began poaching the bird by the stream, while the little ones watched eagerly as its aroma filled the air.

• Xie Juanhan waited for the white bird to leave its burrow, then pinned it down after the little ones drew it out.
• Xie Juanhan stopped a little one from biting the bird and followed the group to a shrub, where they gave him pungent seasoning leaves.
• The little ones ran off after hearing Xie Juanhan wish for a pot, then returned two hours later dragging two dented golden pots.
• Xie Juanhan praised the little ones and brought the pots, the bird, and the seasoning back to the stream.
• Xie Juanhan carefully prepared the white bird and poached it in salted water while the little ones watched and sniffed the cooking aroma.

Xie Juanhan prepared a fragrant dipping sauce and served poached white bird to the little ones, then sent them home with meat and sauce for Telingewei. Telingewei tasted the meal and was amazed by how delicious it was.

• Xie Juanhan made bird-fat dipping sauce, chilled the cooked white bird in salted ice water, and cut it into pieces.
• The little ones eagerly ate the bird meat, then tried it with the sauce and admired Xie Juanhan's cooking.
• Xie Juanhan enjoyed the bird with the sauce and gave the little ones leftovers to take to Telingewei with his golden pots.
• Telingewei discovered that his companion beasts had taken his pots and learned from one of them that they had visited Xie Juanhan.
• Telingewei plated the bird meat and sauce, tasted them, and quickly ate every last bite.

Xie Juanhan gathered mushrooms in the forest and met three farmers, who invited him to their village after he agreed to sell Orfrey some Baklao mushrooms. He followed Orfrey home and began arranging to buy flour, ending inside the farmer’s house beside a cast-iron stove.

• Xie Juanhan went into the forest to gather mushrooms, berries, and nuts, then encountered three farmers near the stream.
• Orfrey asked to buy Baklao mushrooms for his children, and Xie Juanhan agreed to sell him some.
• Orfrey and the other farmers invited Xie Juanhan to their village, and he accepted the invitation.
• Xie Juanhan walked through the village with the farmers and asked Orfrey about buying flour.
• Orfrey offered to sell him wheat and rye flour and led him home, where Xie Juanhan saw a cast-iron stove in the living room.

Xie Juanhan prepared a large batch of Bigda Demon Ox dumplings with help from the curious little ones, secretly hiding magic cores in some of them. The meal was ready to cook, and the little ones eagerly waited nearby.

• Xie Juanhan gathered wild scallions and hunted a Bigda Demon Ox calf, then returned to his temporary home to make dumplings.
• Xie Juanhan cooked half the minced beef with spices, scallions, cooking wine, and fish soy sauce before mixing it with raw beef and chopped wild scallions.
• The little ones watched Xie Juanhan cook and brought him branches while he rolled the dough and wrapped large dumplings.
• Xie Juanhan secretly tucked washed Bigda Demon Ox magic cores into some dumplings and marked their wrappers.
• The little ones proudly stacked a tall pile of branches beside Xie Juanhan's pot, and he prepared to light the fire with his rune slab.

Xie Juanhan made dumplings for the little ones, hiding magic cores inside them as a lucky surprise. After learning that Telingewei had invited him to dine in town, Xie Juanhan agreed to go and received a sealed rune plate with the details that evening.

• Xie Juanhan cooked beef and wild scallion dumplings and showed the little ones how to eat them carefully.
• The little ones crowded around the first companion to taste the filling, and Xie Juanhan separated them so they would eat from their own plates.
• The little ones found magic cores hidden in the dumplings, and Xie Juanhan told them the finders would have good luck.
• Xie Juanhan wrapped cooked dumplings for the little ones' owner, and they told him Telingewei had invited him to visit in town.
• Xie Juanhan agreed to meet Telingewei in town after the little ones clarified the invitation was not to the dragon's lair.
• That evening, a group of little ones delivered Telingewei's sealed rune-plate invitation, and Xie Juanhan read the time, place, and meal details.

Xie Juanhan met Telingewei for lunch, learned that the fluffy little creatures were Telingewei’s companion beasts, and heard about the dragon’s absent mother. They shared chilled elven holy wine, and Xie Juanhan agreed to meet again for fairy-made wine.

• Xie Juanhan arrived at the restaurant in local clothes and met Telingewei for lunch.
• Telingewei thanked Xie Juanhan for caring for his companion beasts and explained that his mother had arranged for them to be born before leaving through a space-time rift.
• Xie Juanhan told Telingewei that dragons in his home clan stayed together and admitted he wanted to return home.
• Telingewei served Xie Juanhan elven holy wine, which Xie Juanhan chilled with his magic.
• Xie Juanhan and Telingewei enjoyed the chilled wine, and Telingewei suggested they share fairy-made wine next time.

After deciding to settle in and build a proper house, Xie Juanhan prepared for construction and searched for suitable materials. He found the Star Market’s caulking supplies unsatisfactory, so he gathered hay, moss, and bark himself, leaving the materials to dry in the forest.

• After getting drunk with Telingewei, Xie Juanhan decided to stop putting off building a house and asked Orfrey to hire a mason.
• Xie Juanhan, Orfrey, and the mason inspected his stockpiled materials, and the mason advised him to buy dwarf-made roof tiles and prepare caulking material.
• Xie Juanhan went to the Star Market, sold a magic deer, and found that the caulking stalls offered only poor-quality hay and moss.
• Xie Juanhan gathered golden hay and pale green moss in the forest, where his dragon companion beasts rolled around in the piles.
• Xie Juanhan stripped bark from trees, scraped its inner layer clean, and laid it out to dry beneath stones.

Xie Juanhan followed the Dragon Companion Beasts to enormous seaside nests where they had gathered down and hay. After spotting a returning Peryton, he tried to quietly gather the eight little ones and leave without provoking the creature.

• Xie Juanhan waited for the Dragon Companion Beasts to arrive for the promised fish cakes, and they returned carrying tufts of soft down.
• The little ones led Xie Juanhan across two mountains to a cliff overlooking the sea, where he found enormous nests below.
• Xie Juanhan transformed into a dragon, carried all eight Dragon Companion Beasts to the nests, and examined the down and hay lining them.
• A Peryton flew back to one of the nests, and Xie Juanhan recognized that disturbing its down could provoke a deadly retaliation.
• Xie Juanhan quietly changed into his dragon form and began collecting the Dragon Companion Beasts to leave without confronting the Peryton.

Xie Juanhan and the dragon companion beasts collected a huge amount of Peryton down after the flock became friendly with him. On the way home, they met Telingewei, who learned what they had done and accepted Xie Juanhan’s invitation to dinner at his temporary riverside home.

• Two Perytons intercepted Xie Juanhan, but he calmed them with a little dragon power and rubbed their bellies.
• More Perytons returned and eagerly gave Xie Juanhan their down, which he combed until it filled his bag and then bundled for the dragon companion beasts to carry.
• Telingewei arrived in his enormous black dragon form, and Xie Juanhan realized he had used that size to intimidate him when they first met.
• Telingewei learned the little ones had gone to collect Peryton down and explained that they tried every spring, while he avoided fighting the Perytons to keep from affecting their breeding.
• Xie Juanhan invited Telingewei to dinner, and Telingewei asked whether the bedding at his temporary riverside home got wet in the rain.

Xie Juanhan taught Telingewei and the eight little ones how he fried fish cakes twice, and Telingewei recommended a fairy tailor to make bedding from the collected down. The fairies lived west of the Magic Forest, and Telingewei offered a gold coin to get the little ones' attention.

• Xie Juanhan fried fish cakes and explained how to clean and reuse oil, while Telingewei admitted he liked cooking.
• Xie Juanhan double-fried the fish cakes, and Telingewei and the little ones enjoyed their crisp, flavorful result.
• Telingewei suggested having a fairy tailor make bedding from the down and told Xie Juanhan where the fairies lived.
• Telingewei called to the little ones and offered a gold coin, which one of them snatched from his hand with its teeth.

Xie Juanhan and Telingewei visited the forest fairies so Xie Juanhan could have bedding made from peryton down. While the fairies worked, Xie Juanhan discovered he could transform fabric with Dragon Power, and the fairies hurried to bring him a larger piece to treat.

• Xie Juanhan and Telingewei traveled to the fairies’ loom, where the fairies initially hid before recognizing Telingewei and meeting Xie Juanhan.
• Xie Juanhan showed the fairies his peryton down, and they agreed to make him a single-person mattress, quilt, and pillow for three level-two magic cores.
• As the fairies processed the down, Telingewei explained that their magic could bring out the properties of textile materials.
• Xie Juanhan infused scraps of fabric with Dragon Power and turned them into sparkling, cool ice-crystal-colored cloth, while Telingewei accidentally burned a scrap with Dragon Flame.
• The fairies admired Xie Juanhan’s transformed fabric, and the little male fairy asked whether he could treat a large piece; the fairies went to fetch one.

Xie Juanhan helped the little fairies enchant fabric and received finished bedding and a nightcap, then learned that a Chimerao had attacked the village’s fields and livestock. He watched adventurers fight the beast across the river, where the battle remained evenly matched.

• Xie Juanhan infused six pieces of sea-angel-hair fabric with Dragon Power, earning twelve level-three magic cores and delighting the little fairies.
• The little fairies finished Xie Juanhan’s down bedding in three days and gave him a star-tipped nightcap as a gift.
• Xie Juanhan slept soundly in the new bedding, then discovered that a Chimerao had torn up farmland and attacked livestock across the river.
• Orfrey told Xie Juanhan that the village had reported the attack to its steward, priest, and sheriff.
• Adventurers pursued the Chimerao to the riverbank, where Xie Juanhan watched them battle the beast in a closely matched fight.

Xie Juanhan killed Chimerao after it fled into the Magic Forest, then brought its body to Telingewei to ask which parts were edible. While waiting for Telingewei, he brushed the Companion Beasts’ fur, and the chapter ended with Telingewei returning to find them asleep beside him.

• Chimerao escaped into the Magic Forest, and the adventurers refused to follow it into the dangerous territory.
• The Companion Beasts rushed after Chimerao, so Xie Juanhan changed into dragon form and quickly killed it before they could get hurt.
• Xie Juanhan learned that some parts of Chimerao could be eaten, but the Companion Beasts disliked it because Telingewei had once made them eat it raw.
• Xie Juanhan carried Chimerao to Telingewei’s cave, waited outside, and brushed the tired Companion Beasts until they fell asleep.
• Telingewei returned late, and Xie Juanhan pointed out Chimerao and asked which parts could be eaten.

Xie Juanhan discovered that Chimerao meat was nearly inedible when freshly cooked, so he experimented with aging it in a carefully controlled cold environment. After the meat softened and developed a richer aroma, he invited Telingewei and the Companion Beasts to try it, but they remained wary.

• Telingewei removed Chimerao's magic core and poisonous parts, while Xie Juanhan took the meat and other valuable materials to sell in town.
• Xie Juanhan tried grilling and stir-frying the Chimerao meat, but found it tough and unpleasant despite its dense energy.
• After selling Chimerao's parts, Xie Juanhan asked around about hiring dwarves to build a house and decided to consult Telingewei.
• Xie Juanhan noticed the frozen Chimerao meat had softened, then aged it by controlling its temperature and humidity until its texture and aroma improved.
• Xie Juanhan invited Telingewei and the Companion Beasts to taste the aged meat, but the little ones avoided the invitation and resisted when he asked if they wanted any.