Four Dragon Island
Volume Six
The Dragon Binds

Zhulong is a city ruled by women, where men are kept as entertainers and concubines. Fei continues to dress as a woman to move more freely as he searches for the particular lumber merchant family he wants to deal with, Shulingfan. They produce the best wood for shipbuilding, yet they ceased all business when the previous White Dragon--known as the "Great Dragon"--died.

Unfortunately, his disguise isn't completely effective, and he's trapped by the head of a rival family who enjoys trafficking in male slaves. He meets up with another prisoner, a nearly blind woman named Lingchuan who works for the Shulingfan family. He fights to free them both, discovering that the rivals are stealing Shulingfan trees to sell as their own.

During his escape, he stumbles upon Max and uses him as camouflage to throw off pursuit. The White Dragon had named his cousin as his heir in case anything should happen to him--as well as to stop people from pestering him to have children--and traveled to Zhulong after his Dragonstone. He claims he only came to see Fei cry in defeat when his plea is rejected.

Max wants Fei to stop spending his energy worrying about others and focus solely on him. Fei wonders why their wills always clash when they both want the exact same thing. Their stay at the Shulingfan estate is interrupted as the Blue Dragon assassin Tienlang and the escaped opium gang members attempt to kill the head of the family while posing as Howaluu to throw off the blame. Max and Fei send them packing. Fei's passion impresses the head of the family into agreeing to grant his wish, assuming the Red Dragon has no objection.

Fei is disheartened by Max's refusal to show any feelings other than sarcastic amusement. Max offers the jade earring back, but Fei doesn't think it has the same deep meaning for the White Dragon that it holds for him. Rather than rely on an illusion, he throws the earring into a waterfall. The Shulingfan head later tells Max that people who break up at that waterfall are destined to be joined, as the forking river converges in the sea.

After the guests depart, Lingchuan hears the story of Fei's origin and cries out the name "Yuiran." She sets off on her own to track Fei down, but she unwittingly falls into the company of Tienlang. At the river, the earring with its intricate design of a dragon entwined around a flower^* washes into the hands of the women serving the Blue Dragon's sister as they return home after the festival.