Chapter 32: Emissary From the East

Sent to deliver his father's lunch to the mines, young Kyle takes a shortcut and knocks over a fainting girl who murmurs that she has crossed the Great Desert. He shares the meal with the starving stranger, who introduces herself as May Chang and her tiny panda as Shao May, both come from the distant land of Xing in search of the secret to immortality. A crash interrupts them, and word arrives that mine number 8 has caved in. Rather than approach the wreckage, May performs an alchemic sequence from a distance that rebuilds the shaft, freeing Kyle's father Halling and another miner. Over food at the inn, Halling recalls being rescued by an alchemist once before, the Elric brothers, and hearing of Edward's deeds, May decides to seek him out.

In Rush Valley, Winry is working for Garfiel when Edward and Alphonse turn up needing yet another repair to Ed's arm. Paninya, fresh off fixing the roof, wanders in to find Ed beaten flat by Winry's temper over the damaged automail. While Winry works, she learns the brothers are bound for Central and resolves to travel with them. Waiting for her, Ed and Al explore the town, where Al is drawn into an alley expecting a stray kitten and instead finds a hungry young man. They feed him, and he explains he has come from Xing to study rendanshu, the eastern form of alchemy, while actually hunting the Philosopher's Stone to gain immortality. When the brothers try to leave, his masked accomplices detain them so he can hear more.

The chapter establishes Xing, the eastern nation whose alchemy, called rendanshu, leans toward healing rather than creation. Paninya has finally persuaded Dominic LeCoulte to accept payment for the automail legs he gave her. It also notes that Rush Valley holds little interest for anyone not obsessed with automail, and that Amestris is hemmed in by hostile borders on every side except the east toward Xing.