Bingshan County

- Tai Lang City

At the moment, the Xue Clan was in the middle of a sticky situation there were discussing the right course of action to take so they knew ahead of time what to do with the upcoming Sky Sect's Disciple Recruitment event that was going to take place in 33 days.

Xue Tai was being adamant about his position, and to ask the Grand Elder to take out the Xue Clan's Treasure ( Soul Ice Crystal ) which belonged to a 10,000-year-old Ice Turquoise Spirit Sky Turaco, that attacked the Xue Clan when they settled here.

The Xue Clan are located in Bingshan County, they control almost 75% percent of the entire county with its resources, and they control its mining rights, with 80% percent of the county located within the Ice and Snowy part of the Saussurea laniceps Mountain Range.

Even though this place is harsh to mortals, and low ranking Cultivators in this county, it's one of the only 3 places on the planet where Icey Spirit Snow Lotus grows, they're located in regions of the mountain range at 5,000 meters to 8,000 meters where people gather the Shan Xue Lian from the flower where it's used for cultivators that suffer from poor blood circulation and helps people in the Body Awakening stage in clearing their spirit Qi pathways and unclog or strength their blood veins in the body, creating a rich and lucrative item for Alechmey Guilds, Alchemy Sects or Merchant groups in the meanwhile, it made the Xue clan very rich.

They're located at the north of the very wide and diverse Snow clover valley, with 4 areas under their control.

Within the 4 areas under their control inside of Bingshan county, they ruled over 67 villages, 30 towns, and 9 of the 13 cities, of the four cities that weren't under their control, 2 of them belonged to the branch family of the Great Yu Clan and one was controlled by the ( Burning Blood Sect ) and the last one was controlled and shared with the local government, where a Stronghold was placed, with the Alchemist and Blacksmith Guilds respectfully located in this city.

Xue Tai was in the middle of trying to discreetly convince his brother to help him convince the Grand Elder desperately so they could use the Soul Ice Crystal on at least 3 people in the clan, that could help them succeed in joining the Sky Sect, and in the process stopping them to put the fight with the branches of the Great Yu clan off to the side to deal with in the future and to deal with the Burning Blood Sect taking some of their resources.

The Great Yu Clan had been making moves in the dark, inside of Yu State while simultaneously making moves by placing pieces inside and outside of the entire Xue Provence, not just in Bingshan county.

Right now, all of Xue Provence was soon going to be involved with the shadow war between the Chu and Yu States, which are both right next to the Sky and the Ming States, the Sky State is where the main base of the ( Sky Sect ) is located.

They are the number 1 strongest power within the Area, they control the entire Mountain Domain, it's broken into 5 different Regions, the Region where the Xue Clan is located is in the Heavenly South Region, where there are 14 different States. The Xue Clan is under the Great Chu Clan which controls 11 Provinces, one of those provinces is under the Xue Clan's rule.

While the Xue Clan is aware that things are happening behind the scenes, there are not 💯% percent sure where everything is happening right now, all they do know is that the Great Yu Clan sent people to start performing discourse with the Xue Provence.

The first two places they did, were in the Xue Clan's Bingshan County and the next county over, which was controlled by the Jongnam Sect, they served under the Sky Sect.

Right now things were in a delicate balance, the Jongnam Sect was searching and fighting for any trace of the Burning Blood Sect, and the Branch Yu Clan was trying to gain a foothold in Bingshan County.

Right now, the only thing that could be traced or evaluated properly was that the Brach Clan of the Yu's was trying to control another city right now, and the fastest way to do that was to gain influence over one of the other cities.

The Branch of the Great Yu Clan moved to Bingshan county a little 500 years ago, despite being weaker than any of the local snakes, there was also the Burning Blood Sect that was hidden in the area, or the small Dragon that was the Xue Clan.

They had gotten ahold of one of the cities back then and gotten their foot into the door again about 230 years ago by taking control of another city, they bought the second city from Tai Lian Clan they had controlled it for over 4000 years, it didn't bug them as much as it annoyed the Xue Clan as the main Clan paid for the city for a large sum of gold and resources for the Tai Lian Clan to help cultivate their clan.

The Great Yu clan was in the process of trying to purchase another city and a couple of towns from the government, but the Xue Clan was still getting in their way and they were starting to lose their patience with them.

Right now with the Xue Tian stronghold having their local garrison training up in the mountains, in Bingshan county, the garrison leader was being bombarded with constant requests for his help to sway the government in whatever their cause or request was.

The local Garrison Commander relocated his family when he settled here, they sold all of their properties and moved here with what they had.

In the process the locals welcomed him with open arms, as to the north of his stronghold was a snowy forest covered in snow that had stampedes of different snow demons that attacked every decade, there was an evil Snarl Snow owl that ruled over the forest and sent Spirit Beast waves to attack the humans every decade.

It used its demonic powers to turn Spirit beats in the forest into snow spirit demons, it took control of them, and used them as pawns and soldiers to attack the Xue Tian stronghold every decade.

Because of how great the Garrison Commander did his job in the last couple of decades, the local mayors teamed up together and offered money to the local Vicount Gu Ming and the Ice & Snow District Governer to help build the Great Garrison Commander a Siheyuan Mansion with a 5 story Pagoda, 7 courtyards, one big in the south and a larger one towards the north accompanied by a 2 story temple for his ancestors and then they built a somewhat large Mausoleum behind his compound near and up on the mountain.

After being in Bingshan county for over 4 decades he had renamed his family's compound to the Bingshan Palace, it housed over 30 servants, a koi pond and ranch to the side for him and his families horses, and a small bridge that was built for his second daughter that passed away in childbirth, honoring her and naming it after her.

Through hard work, sweat, and tears his family now had over 40 members located in it now, his family now owed a couple of nice businesses and they owned a restaurant and a pawn shop and now they have a nice nest egg they can sit back and enjoy the spoils now.

----------------------------------------

- Bingshan Compound, Northside

Inside a large and peaceful courtyard was a young man, sitting and feeding the Koi located within the courtyard's pond.

"If only you guys could talk to me, then I would have someone to voice my complaints to, and it not fall on deaf ears. Though if you could talk I'm not sure you'd say anything that could help me and you would all just ask for more food, haha!"

Then the young man let out a soft laugh, with a frown on his face and a knot in his heart he kind of didn't know how to feel or act at the moment. Right now he was having doubts about what to do next, his family wanted him to join a military academy, then join his father's stronghold and join the family business of serving and being in the military.

Footsteps could be heard as he was feeding the Koi, though he didn't even look up as he already knew who it was, his father's personal Servant and Aid to the household and his personal coming to see him.

A man in Silk purple robes, with a white crane and long hair, was walking first, followed up by an older-looking gentleman with a Turquoise Hangfu robe with an Ice Sky Turaco Bird on the front and Back.

They both had a presence to them, that both could stand out in a room filled with other men, the man in the turquoise Hangfu Robe was my Father's, right-hand man and personal Servant and the younger man was my servant and by his posture and how he walked if you didn't but if you guessed it right he was a eunuch*.

"Young Master, Elder Fu is here to see you!"

"Thank you, Gu Ming, ask the servants to tell the chief I want some steak and rice for lunch, oh and this time ask them to grill the peppers with the steak this time"

"Right way Young Master Shanyuan, right away!"

"Young Master your father needs you to make a decision soon, he knows the difficulties you face, and he knows you don't want to upset your mother who is trying to help you join an academy."

...

There was a pause in the air, you could the wind outside the Bingshan compound rustling and the windchimes hanging near the Pagoda that his sister hung up, making noise.

Young Master Shanyuan paused as the last of the fish food for the Koi fell into the pond and as he swept his hands together to wipe away the leftover crumbs, grabbed a small hand towel and brushed his hands clean.

He signed softly.

Elder Fu raised an eyebrow, as to ponder what was irking the young man.

He went to step forward and offer a hand, as he thought the young master didn't want to do it himself, but just as he was to step forward...

Young Master Shanyuan, raised a hand to stop him and snapped his fingers and a female servant appeared out of nowhere to take the towel away.

Elder Fu grinned and then smiled at the servant.

"Your skills are getting better Chao-Xing, I almost didn't feel your presence until you performed your movement technique."

"Thank you, Elder Fu!"

"You can leave now."

- Swoosh

"That one is getting better Young Master, have you been practicing with Chao-xing?"

"When I feel like it, and I'm not bored!"

"Young Master, you need to prepare soon as this county is going to experience a little chaos soon, your Grandfather expects the Burning Blood Sect and the Brach Family of the Great Yu family are going to be making moves soon."

"Yeah, but as soon as The Great Mountain Sky Sect hears of any problems, they will just nip it in the bud!"

"Maybe your right, but life isn't like that, there are ups and downs in life, just like climbing up in a mountain range, life is an uphill battle that you must ...

"Stop it, can you not spell out one grandpa's life quotes for me, for once I don't want to listen to another lecture, why can't life be more exciting than this Elder Fu, leave me be I'm going to the dining room to eat."

Swoosh!

"At least the Young Master has some skill, and isn't a completely useless young man?"

Swoosh!

... ... ...

"Brother Hong, they're all gone!"

"Damn I thought we were going to get caught again, if we got caught again taking a nap on guard duty, Elder Fu and Gu Ming that Eunuch, would beat us until we did 200 laps around the compound again."

"Yeah, but did you hear, Elder Fu said the Burning Blood and the Branch family of the Great Yu Clan are making moves!"

"Yeah, but what does that have to do with us, Brother Liu?"

"If stuff like that happens you should know, that means more money for us, more work but, will also be able to receive more training in the future."

"Well if I Liu Qiqiang have anything to say about it, I think it's good for us! With the Ice & Snow tournament coming up and the Great Mountain Sky Sect's disciple recruitment will have plenty of things to do in the future brother Hong!"

He didn't know it yet, but Liu Qiqiang's predictions would come true in the future and they would have more than a couple of things to do, but a lot of things to do.

------------------------------------

- Author's Note *

A eunuch is a man who has been castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2nd millennium BCE. Over the millennia since then, they have performed a wide variety of functions in many different cultures: in Ancient china, they were used in courtier fashion or for equivalent domestic affairs, for espionage or servants of concubines, or government officials, or guards and guardians of consorts or staff within a harem.