Chapter Summaries

Telingewei’s attempt to hide a mutated magic plant from Xie Juanhan went awry when the Companion Beasts carried it to the Pixies for help and Xie Juanhan’s Blessing Magic made it even stranger. Xie Juanhan secretly returned the plant to the study, and after Telingewei left at dawn, he got up to inspect it.

• Telingewei failed to draw his power back out of the mutated plant and hid its damage beneath a Demonic Beast hide.
• The Companion Beasts carried the plant to the Pixies, whose Blessing Magic failed to fix it and made its power more chaotic.
• Xie Juanhan followed Moli to the stranded Companion Beasts, learned what had happened, and tried to restore the plant with Blessing Magic, making it stranger still.
• Xie Juanhan quietly put the plant back on the desk and decided to keep his own mistake from Telingewei.
• At dawn, Telingewei left on patrol, and Xie Juanhan got out of bed and went to the study.

Xie Juanhan and Telingewei helped the mutated wand plant thrive, while their little companions turned its lava-spitting into a dangerous game. Xie Juanhan proposed taking them on a Spring Festival outing, and the little ones grew interested when he described the holiday food, though the Griffin got its tail singed again.

• Xie Juanhan told Telingewei he had been flushing the wand plant with Dragon Power, and Telingewei revealed that he had also been tending it.
• Xie Juanhan and Telingewei realized the plant was mutated and learned that it thrived on Magic Power, then watched it grow into a large shrub that spat Dragon Flame.
• Harper and the other little ones played a game that made the wand plant spit lava, burning Haxi's tail and leaving scorch marks on the others.
• Xie Juanhan suggested taking the little ones hunting and gathering for the Spring Festival, and he explained the holiday traditions to Telingewei.
• The little ones became eager when Xie Juanhan described the Spring Festival feast, but the Griffin got another patch of its tail burned by the wand plant.

Telingewei, Xie Juanhan, and the little beasts gathered food and welcomed Moli’s Demon Wolf elders, while Nibote grew despondent because he could not catch prey. The others secretly brought him food, and he woke to find them all presenting their catches.

• Telingewei prepared a golden sled, and he and Harper agreed that the beasts would pull it for eight days in exchange for one gold coin each.
• Xie Juanhan and Telingewei took the little ones gathering through the frozen landscape, filling their kitchen with food and supplies.
• Moli heard the Demon Wolves near the farmland, reunited with his elders, and received a Demon Sheep that Xie Juanhan and Telingewei cooked for dinner.
• Harper and the others brought back Erteme Demonic Beasts for barbecue, while Nibote remained unhappy because his own hunting attempts had failed.
• Moli hid a Demon Bird under Nibote’s mat, Harper and the others brought Erteme Demonic Beasts, and Xie Juanhan and Telingewei arrived with silverfish for him.
• Nibote woke, smelled the fish, and excitedly approached Xie Juanhan and Telingewei before noticing the other beasts and their catches.

Xie Juanhan and the furry little ones prepared a feast to cheer Nibote, then traveled through the snowy forest to deliver Spring Festival gifts to the Demon Wolves and the Weaving Fairies. The Weaving Fairies welcomed the new celebration and gave the group sweets, cake, and colorful textiles in return.

• Xie Juanhan and Telingewei gave Nibote silver fish and prey, and he eagerly chose to share a feast with everyone.
• Xie Juanhan, Telingewei, and the furry little ones rode a golden sleigh to the Demon Wolves' territory with baskets of Spring Festival gifts.
• Moli and Nibote delivered the baskets, and the Demon Wolves discovered meat, cake, candy, and other food inside.
• The group visited the Weaving Fairies, and Xie Juanhan explained that the Spring Festival celebrated spring's return and the new year.
• The Weaving Fairies sampled Xie Juanhan's soft nut candy and gave the group their own candy, cake, and colorful textiles.

Xie Juanhan celebrated Spring Festival with his family, received gifts from other races, and prepared for spring. After the fluffballs repeatedly caught Goblins near the vegetable garden, he and Telingewei investigated and secretly watched the fence as the Goblins woke at sunrise.

• Xie Juanhan thanked the Weaving Fairies for their Spring Festival gifts, then opened parcels sent by several races, including plants from the Griffins for Nibote.
• Xie Juanhan celebrated Spring Festival with his family, then planned a shopping trip to Teme Port with Telingewei to prepare for spring.
• The fluffballs caught Goblins near the vegetable garden, and Xie Juanhan praised them and treated them to a feast.
• After the fluffballs caught Goblins three times in one week, Xie Juanhan and Telingewei found the vegetables untouched and suspected something was wrong.
• Xie Juanhan and Telingewei hid near the cottage and watched the Goblins slowly wake in the rising sun.

Xie Juanhan and Telingewei discovered that the Goblins were using their territory for protection from a Human-Faced Smoke Bird, while the companion beasts had been tricked into carrying them back to the fence. After spring arrived, Xie Juanhan began teaching the growing Nibote to fly, and the chapter ended with them soaring above ten thousand meters.

• Xie Juanhan and Telingewei watched the Goblins repeatedly escape and return to the fence, then realized they were seeking protection from a predator.
• Xie Juanhan told Moli and the others to stop carrying the Goblins back, and the companion beasts later discovered that a Human-Faced Smoke Bird was hunting them.
• The Goblins sought refuge near Xie Juanhan to evade the Smoke Bird, leaving Moli and Nibote indignant at having been fooled.
• After spring arrived, Xie Juanhan found Nibote guarding an abandoned Goblin burrow and told him the Goblins had moved away.
• Xie Juanhan took Nibote into the air to practice flying, and Telingewei carried them on his back as they climbed above ten thousand meters.

Xie Juanhan helped Nibote practice flying, but the young Griffin struggled to coordinate his wings and body despite repeated attempts. After Nibote crashed into a pond, Xie Juanhan decided they might need to find him a private tutor.

• Xie Juanhan and Telingewei took Nibote into the sky, where he jumped off the dragon and began learning to fly.
• Xie Juanhan gave Nibote advice about balancing and tightening his belly, but Nibote kept twisting his waist and sticking out his butt as he flew.
• Telingewei explained that Griffins were heavy magical creatures created by the goddess and might take a long time to learn to fly.
• During practice by the pond, Nibote lost control and splashed into the water, then returned to shore dejected despite Xie Juanhan encouraging him.
• Xie Juanhan and Telingewei discussed Nibote's unusual behavior, and Xie Juanhan suggested getting him a private tutor.

Xie Juanhan arranged for the Perytons to teach Nibote group flight, and watched as the Griffin learned among their young. When the Perytons laughed at Nibote’s hiccups, he retaliated with a foul-smelling fart that sent the flock fleeing.

• Xie Juanhan offered the Perytons Demonic Cores and aquatic plants to let Nibote join their flying lessons, and they agreed to let him watch.
• The Perytons taught their young to ride rising air and adjust their wings, while Xie Juanhan and Telingewei watched from the sea cliff.
• Nibote flew more easily in the group, but he kept hiccuping and grew upset when the Perytons laughed at him.
• Nibote hovered in midair and released several foul farts, scattering the Perytons and leaving them furious.

Xie Juanhan and Telingewei prepared new riverbank fields for planting, then began transplanting Star Berries and raising rice seedlings. With spring arriving and the Companion Beasts sent to scatter seeds through the forest, Xie Juanhan felt at home despite being unable to return.

• Xie Juanhan had Telingewei roast the new farmland with Dragon Flame to kill pests and microorganisms in the soil.
• Harper and the other Companion Beasts arrived to watch, tried spitting fireballs, and learned that doing so hardened the soil.
• Xie Juanhan fitted the little ones with seed bags and sent them running through the forest to scatter seeds.
• Xie Juanhan and Telingewei transplanted Star Berries into the new fields and planned pumpkin and rice cultivation.
• Xie Juanhan raised rice seedlings by the hot spring and watched Demon Birds fly over the fields, while Telingewei smiled at him.

Xie Juanhan and Telingewei discovered that their new neighbors had left them carefully wrapped gifts of seeds and fertilizer. Telingewei identified the visitors as a new group of Goblins who had likely moved to the peaceful Magic Forest.

• Xie Juanhan told Telingewei how farming and industrialization had shaped his distant hometown.
• Xie Juanhan spotted a yellow-brown shape riding a Demon Bird, and Telingewei guessed it might be a newcomer to the Magic Forest.
• Harper and the other fluffballs showed Xie Juanhan and Telingewei three neatly wrapped packages left outside their courtyard.
• Xie Juanhan opened the gifts and found treated seeds, while Telingewei found fertilizer in the other two boxes.
• Telingewei identified the gifts as the work of a new group of Goblins that had likely arrived on Demon Birds.

Xie Juanhan and Telingewei tried to make peace with a new Goblin tribe by sending them vegetables and fruit, then planned a quiet visit to the mountaintop cabin. Later, they dried their wine-barrel planks and discovered that their Yuri Berry wine had finished fermenting with a rich aroma and deep amber color.

• Xie Juanhan persuaded the Companion Beasts to give the new Goblins a chance, and he sent Moli with a basket of vegetables and fruit as a gift.
• Xie Juanhan and Telingewei agreed to visit the mountaintop cabin to get some peace and quiet.
• Xie Juanhan and Telingewei laid out their planks by the river to dry, while the Companion Beasts tried and failed to help.
• Harper led the little ones to the backyard wine jar, where Xie Juanhan opened it and found the Yuri Berry wine fragrant and deep amber.

Xie Juanhan and Telingewei tasted grade-one magic wine and kept the Companion Beasts from drinking more than a lick, then Xie Juanhan promised to make them a wine-based dessert if they helped with work. The next day, the little ones ground rice into flour, and Xie Juanhan began making a simple version of tangyuan cooked with wine.

• Xie Juanhan and Telingewei discovered that the wine was grade-one magic wine, and Xie Juanhan let each Companion Beast have one lick.
• Telingewei protected the wine jars with a magic array while the Companion Beasts begged for more.
• Xie Juanhan agreed to make the Companion Beasts a wine dessert in exchange for their help, and Harper accepted the deal.
• The next day, Xie Juanhan harnessed the little ones to turn a stone mill and grind hulled rice into flour.
• Xie Juanhan sifted the rice flour, mixed it with boiling water, and kneaded it into dough for tangyuan cooked with wine.

Xie Juanhan made sweet wine rice balls for Harper and the other Companion Beasts, then welcomed the Tata Fish and shared the dessert with them. After trading for fish milk, he and Telingewei decided to churn some into milk fat.

• Xie Juanhan cooked sweet wine rice balls, and Harper and the other Companion Beasts eagerly ate them.
• The Tata Fish arrived to trade fish milk for beast meat and aquatic plants, and Xie Juanhan offered them rice balls without asking for extra payment.
• The Tata Fish and the little ones went upstream to play while Xie Juanhan and Telingewei prepared the agreed trade goods.
• Xie Juanhan and Telingewei discussed keeping the Tata Fish as long-term partners instead of raising dairy cows.
• Xie Juanhan and Telingewei poured the rich fish milk into a churn and began slowly stirring it to make milk fat.

Xie Juanhan divined that the missing young Perytons were safe in the Inner Land, and he and Telingewei led the search party there at dusk. The group arrived in the realm and drew the attention of the young Perytons nearby.

• Xie Juanhan and the others searched the Magic Forest for the missing young Perytons but found no trace of them.
• Xie Juanhan divined that the young Perytons were safe in the Inner Land, southwest in a watery place that concealed them.
• Xie Juanhan told the Perytons and Harper’s companions to rest until dusk, then explained to Telingewei that his divination had improved through accumulated merit and their shared luck.
• Xie Juanhan and Telingewei led the Perytons and their companions into the Inner Land through a forest pool as the evening clouds appeared.
• Moli and Nibote explored the Inner Land while Xie Juanhan reassured Moli, and the young Perytons noticed the arriving group.

Xie Juanhan, Telingewei, Moli, and the Companion Beasts gathered Spicy Clams and tender aquatic shoots by the river while the Perytons chased their young. They returned home the next morning, where Xie Juanhan cooked several dishes with the shoots and found them delicious.

• The adult Perytons chased the young ones away, while Nibote flew after them carrying eight Companion Beasts on his back and Moli stayed beside Xie Juanhan.
• Xie Juanhan and Telingewei went into the river to gather Spicy Clams, and Moli joined them with a basket in his mouth.
• Xie Juanhan discovered fragrant, tender aquatic shoots and picked them with Telingewei while Moli gathered Spicy Clams.
• Nibote and the Companion Beasts returned from watching the Perytons, and the Perytons later returned and searched the river for shoots of their own.
• Xie Juanhan and Telingewei carried eight baskets of shoots home, arriving early the next morning.
• Xie Juanhan cooked the shoots in several ways and found them delicious.

Xie Juanhan realized the aquatic plants in the Inner Land had grown unusually well because of elemental crystals buried in the river mud. He and Telingewei found several crystals and set out to investigate their properties.

• After waking uneasy, Xie Juanhan realized they had overlooked something in the Inner Land and rushed there with Telingewei before sunset.
• Xie Juanhan and Telingewei entered the Inner Land and searched the riverbed where they had harvested aquatic shoots.
• Xie Juanhan collected aquatic plants and soil in a basket, and they found crystals hidden in the mud.
• Telingewei identified the crystals as condensed magic elements, and Xie Juanhan recognized three as earth elemental crystals and one as a water elemental crystal.
• Xie Juanhan and Telingewei collected the crystals and continued searching underwater.

Xie Juanhan and Telingewei discovered that elemental crystals in the Inner Land were slowly dissipating and that gold could preserve them, then brought Harper and the others to help search. The group collected crystals together, but Haxi and another little one began squabbling over a find.

• Xie Juanhan noticed the earth and water elemental crystals were slowly shrinking and theorized that they nourished the aquatic plants.
• Xie Juanhan and Telingewei discussed whether the crystals had come from a larger Inner World linked to the World Tree and the legendary Inner Sea.
• Telingewei tested storing the crystals in a gold flask, and Xie Juanhan found they dissipated far more slowly inside it.
• At dawn, Xie Juanhan and Telingewei returned with a sealed gold flask full of crystals and planned to bring the little ones to help search.
• The next day, Xie Juanhan and Telingewei showed Harper and the others how to identify the crystals, and Hadi became the first to find one.
• Haxi and another little one fought over an elemental crystal, so Telingewei flicked an aquatic plant shoot into Haxi's mouth.

Xie Juanhan and Telingewei discovered that the Magic Wand Plant had swallowed several elemental crystals and decided to test their effect on Star Berries. Six days into the controlled experiment, the Star Berry plants given crystals had grown dramatically and showed signs of breaking through to the next level.

• Xie Juanhan and Telingewei collected a little over half a jar of elemental crystals from the river, then found no answers after studying them and asking grand magisters and Water Demons for advice.
• The Magic Wand Plant swept two water crystals and six earth crystals off Xie Juanhan’s desk and swallowed them; Xie Juanhan and Telingewei searched its pot but found no crystals in the soil.
• Xie Juanhan proposed comparing Star Berry plants given earth crystals, water crystals, both types, Goblin fertilizer, or nothing, and he and Telingewei prepared the pots.
• After six days, Xie Juanhan found that the three Star Berries given elemental crystals had grown lush and showed signs of breaking past level two, while the other plants had changed less.
• Telingewei observed that the Star Berries given earth crystals and water crystals showed little difference from each other.

Xie Juanhan and Telingewei investigated ways to use Elemental Crystals and decided to ask the Goblins to turn them into fertilizer. They followed Moli into the Goblins’ old underground network, learned how Harper and the others had driven out the previous Goblins, and continued searching for the new group.

• Xie Juanhan and Telingewei found that Elemental Crystals evaporated quickly and did little to advance the Star Berries or Magic Wand Plant.
• Xie Juanhan realized the crystals might be made into fertilizer and took Telingewei to find Moli and the new Goblins.
• Moli tracked the Goblins to a hidden entrance, and Telingewei deduced that they had taken over the previous Goblins’ underground passages.
• Telingewei revealed that Moli, Harper, and the others had lured a Human-Faced Smoke Bird to the previous Goblins’ hiding places, forcing them to flee.
• Xie Juanhan and Telingewei searched the underground passages but saw no Goblins, so Xie Juanhan asked for mead and candied fruit to try Summoning Magic.

Xie Juanhan and Telingewei persuaded a new tribe of Goblins to brew fertilizer from elemental crystals, and the Goblins completed their first batch. They took the fertilizer to test on the Magic Wand Plant, with the fluffies crowding around to watch.

• Xie Juanhan summoned Goblins, who initially left a packet of fertilizer and hesitated to take on his request.
• After Telingewei translated their concerns, the Goblins agreed to brew three batches of fertilizer using earth, water, and mixed elemental crystals.
• The Goblins asked for kitchen scraps as payment, so Xie Juanhan offered them Star Berries for each crystal and promised to leave the scraps by the river.
• Half a month later, the Goblins delivered nearly half a bucket of fluffy, Magic-rich elemental fertilizer made from thirty crystals.
• Xie Juanhan chose to test the fertilizer on the Magic Wand Plant rather than the Star Berries, and he and Telingewei carried it to the riverbank as the fluffies gathered around.