The Envoy From the East

Scar duels the Silver Alchemist Giolio Comanche and finishes him after a close exchange that leaves a cut on his leg. Back at his hideout, he finds that Yoki has taken in a collapsed young girl named May Chang, who heals the wound using alkahestry, a medical art from her far-eastern homeland of Xing. She recognizes readings of the Dragon's Pulse in Scar's tattoo, which his late brother had studied. May aims to reach Central to seek the alchemy of immortality by finding the famed Edward Elric, and her tiny companion Shao May settles the matter of whether she may travel with them.

In Central, Hawkeye easily fends off an attack by the hollow-bodied Barry the Chopper, unfazed since she knows Alphonse. She, Mustang, and Falman question Barry at Warehouse 5 about Laboratory 5, Lust, Envy, and the researchers rendered into Philosopher's Stone ingredients, but he knows nothing of Hughes' murder. The Elrics reach Rush Valley so Winry can repair the automail damaged in Ed's fight with Greed, though with parts out of stock she can only patch it for now.

The boys find a stranger passed out from hunger and feed him. He claims to have crossed the desert from Xing, visited the ruins of Xerxes, and come to study alkahestry, then introduces himself as Ling Yao and admits his real goal is the Philosopher's Stone for the sake of immortality. He summons two masked, cloaked retainers to press the Elrics, splitting them into separate fights. Ed struggles against the hooded one's martial skill until he provokes reckless charges by insulting Ling, and Al binds the old man with circle-less alchemy while Paninya aids him. Unmasking his opponent, Ed discovers a girl who slices apart his makeshift arm repair, but he baits her into a hidden trap and captures her. Ling proves impressed, and when angry townsfolk demand payment for the damage, he ducks out by feigning a language barrier. It emerges that the retainers, Lan Fan and the old man Fu, serve a family that has attended Ling's for generations, and that Ling is a son of the ailing Xingese Emperor seeking the stone to be named his successor. Winry decides to travel to Central with the brothers to visit the Hughes family, and to Ed's dismay Ling announces he will come along too.

The title card's circle is the Purification Circle used in alkahestry, and this is the first episode of the second season. Barry's interrogation is shortened, briefly leaving Falman's role unexplained. May Chang's appearance in Youswell is cut, and several events reordered from the manga: Scar's battle with Comanche and his first meeting with May originally came later, after Lust's death. Ling's royal status, hinted at only as a well-off background in the manga, is made explicit here.