Gaoye City

Biodata

Feature	Information
Name	Gaoye City (高叶城)
Affiliation	Originally dominated by the Gao, Ye, and Huang Families; later governed by Panshi Fist Academy under Wang Yuan’s authority 9 108 278
Status	Evacuated and left empty as its people, academy, soldiers, and supplies departed for Kaoshan Sect ahead of the Imperial Court’s advance; several thousand displaced civilians were subsequently received by Qinghe Prefecture City 286 287 296 319
First Appearance	Chapter 3

Geography & Districts

Gaoye City is a frontier city divided between an Inner City controlled by major lineages and an Outer City where martial halls, merchants, gangs, and common residents operate. Its name derives from the Gao and Ye Families, which were among its original founders and most entrenched powers 9.

The city lies a long journey from the sects of Cloud Province, making its inhabitants difficult to protect from the sect heartland during periods of widespread disorder. Black Wind Ridge, the Black Wind Bandits’ base, is eighty miles west of the city, while an official road connects Gaoye City with the Prefecture City 30 81 269.

Area	Known features
Inner City	Historical seat of the Gao, Ye, and Huang Families and their industries, estates, guards, and inherited martial resources 9
Outer City	Home to Panshi Fist Academy, other martial organizations, gangs, merchants, and poorer neighborhoods such as Bluestone Alley 3 9
East District	Contains Bluestone Alley, where Wang Yuan’s family originally lived 21
South District	Includes the South District courtyard gifted to Wang Yuan and Drunken Immortal Tower, a renowned restaurant 21 30
Dock District	Former sphere of Ye Family influence; its freight depots concealed or were suspected to conceal the Ye Family treasury 105 109
Ci’an Ward	A poorer western ward of craftsmen and commoners; the Gao Family’s secret vault was hidden beneath a funeral-paper shop there 105
Black Market	An underground market accessed through an abandoned area between the South and West Districts; it trades in weapons, stolen goods, medicinal materials, and illicit manuals 41

The city has four gates and high defensive walls. The western gate overlooks the wilderness toward Black Wind Ridge and was the site of the decisive confrontation with Yuan Gang; the South City side gate later became the entry point for the second siege’s attackers after an internal betrayal 89 100 109 275.

Governance & Power Structure

Three Great Families

Before its collapse, Gaoye City was ruled by the Gao, Ye, and Huang Families. The Gao and Ye Families possessed century-deep roots and controlled major city industries, while the Huang Family was a more recent but aggressively expanding power 9.

• All three families possessed experts above Force Entry and were regarded as the city’s true rulers 9.
• The Gao Family maintained an inherited Heavenly Net Entangling Silk Force legacy; the Ye and Huang Families held the Iron Bone Copper Body Force and Sea Covering True Energy legacies, respectively 109.
• Their authority was broken after the Black Wind Bandit crisis, the deaths of key leaders, and Wang Yuan’s seizure of their treasuries and martial inheritances 104 105 109.
• Surviving family factions later rallied under Gao Qiu, Ye Chen, and Huang Laoxie, seeking to restore their former dominance through an alliance with the Incense God Cult. Their leaders and remaining forces were ultimately eliminated during Wang Yuan’s return 274 276 279.

Martial Organizations

The Outer City’s principal martial institutions included Panshi Fist Academy, Flowing Cloud Martial Hall, Mountain Severing Sect, Flying Eagle Martial Hall, Panshi Gate, and other halls. Their leaders were generally Force Entry practitioners, making them the Outer City’s strongest organized forces beneath the great families 9 109.

• Panshi Fist Academy eventually became Gaoye City’s supreme martial authority, commanding the remaining martial halls and city defenses 108 278.
• Martial halls were later forbidden from private factionalism, collusion with outside enemies, or refusal of Panshi’s military orders 278.
• Several halls participated in martial law, arrests, cult suppression, and the searches for the Gao, Ye, and Huang Family treasuries 108 109.
• After the first crisis, mixed defensive patrols combined Panshi disciples, Gao Family members, and newly incorporated Ye Family guards. Gate access during the lockdown required authorization from Zheng Shan or Wang Yuan 113 114.
• Following the second siege, subordinate martial-school leaders submitted their rosters to Panshi Fist Academy, formally acknowledging its centralized authority 279.
• Wang Yuan strengthened the academy with high-grade healing and Qi-and-Blood pills, Nine-Leaf Green Lotus leaves, and orthodox martial manuals, improving the cultivation of its leaders and surviving defenders 278.

Gangs and Underground Forces

Gangs occupied the lowest formal tier of the city’s hierarchy, though some were protected by Inner City interests 9.

• The Black Tiger Gang operated within the city’s criminal underworld before being drawn into Wang Yuan’s conflict with local factions 9 30.
• The Incense God Cult established hidden altars in slums and abandoned sites, exploiting disorder, disease, poverty, and refugees to recruit followers 81.
• The Black Wind Bandits operated from Black Wind Ridge west of the city and became the primary external threat during its first major crisis 81 89.

Commercial Interests

The Wanguan Merchant Association, controlled by Shang Yong’s lineage, was the largest merchant association in Gaoye City’s Outer City. Its businesses extended throughout the Outer City and maintained numerous connections with the Three Great Families 21.

Grain shipments and trade with the Prefecture City depended on dangerous overland escort routes. The Black Wind Bandits’ expansion onto official roads threatened this commerce, prompting Shang Yong to seek Wang Yuan’s assistance with a major grain convoy 30 63 69.

History

Rule of the Three Great Families

For much of its known history, Gaoye City was governed through the combined influence of the Gao, Ye, and Huang Families. The Gao and Ye Families controlled longstanding industries and inherited resources, while the Huang Family rose rapidly through forceful expansion and frequent conflict with the older lineages 9.

The city’s social structure was sharply divided. Inner City heirs benefited from wealth, medicinal resources, and martial inheritance, while Outer City residents faced gang violence, poverty, and limited access to martial advancement 6 9 18.

Outer City Martial Arts Gathering

The Outer City Martial Arts Gathering was held at Yangwu Training Ground under the supervision of a senior Gao Family steward. Competitors were divided into First, Second, and Third Blood Change tiers, with prizes intended to reward outstanding fighters and promote the city’s martial spirit. Deliberately taking an opponent’s life was prohibited 58.

Lin Xiaoru of Flowing Cloud Martial Hall won the First Blood Change competition, while Panshi Fist Academy also achieved several strong placements. Wang Yuan’s victory over the Second Blood Change competitors, including his crippling of Feng Ming with three spear strikes, brought him citywide fame and restored the academy’s prestige. Merchants, neighbors, and matchmakers subsequently crowded the Wang family store seeking connections with him 58 63.

Rising Disorder

The city’s stability deteriorated as the Black Wind Bandits expanded their raids onto official roads and defeated a suppression force organized by the Three Great Families 30. At the same time, the Incense God Cult used the resulting fear and hardship to spread its influence through hidden altars, “divine medicine,” and recruitment among refugees and the poor 81.

Following the death of the Huang Family’s hired constable Situ Ming, the Huang Family’s investigation consumed its attention and weakened the balance among the city’s ruling powers. The Gao and Ye Families responded cautiously, while the bandits and cult moved more aggressively to exploit the vacuum 81.

As the threat of a joint bandit and cult attack grew, the Three Great Families sought Panshi Fist Academy’s assistance. Zheng Shan agreed in exchange for medicinal and forging resources, independent command over his disciples, and brief access to each family’s Fundamental Diagram. He then placed the academy on battle readiness while secretly investigating Wang Yuan’s whereabouts 86 87.

Black Wind Bandit Crisis

The Black Wind Bandits, led by Yuan Gang, confronted the Three Great Families outside Gaoye City with five to six hundred fighters. The families fielded more than two hundred experts, guards, and elite soldiers while the city walls were placed under defense 89.

Yuan Gang publicly accused the great families of exploiting tenant farmers, dockworkers, debtors, and poor families for generations. His grievances transformed the confrontation from a bandit raid into an open challenge to the city’s established order 89.

During the battle, Huang Chengzong withdrew many Huang Family elites, fracturing the alliance. Yuan Gang subsequently defeated Gao Shiqing and maimed Ye Xiong before Wang Yuan intervened at the western gate 90 100. Wang Yuan killed Yuan Gang, then turned on the surviving family heads to seize the accumulated wealth, medicinal resources, and martial legacies of the old powers 104 105.

Huang Chengzong’s withdrawal concealed a conspiracy with the Black Wind Bandits and the Incense God Cult. He intended to eliminate the Gao and Ye Families, sacrifice wounded martial artists as a pledge to his allies, and divide control of the city among the three collaborating factions. Wang Yuan interrupted the planned execution, killed Huang Chengzong and the principal enemies confronting the wounded defenders, and arranged their retreat to Panshi Fist Academy before proceeding to the western gate 95 99.

Panshi Fist Academy Ascendancy

After the battle, Wang Yuan ordered Zheng Shan and the surviving martial halls to impose martial law, suppress cult remnants, capture Huang Family loyalists, and search the dock district for the Ye Family treasury 108 109.

The old order collapsed rapidly:

• The Huang Family was purged after its collusion with the Incense God Cult was exposed 109.
• The Ye Family lost its patriarch and could not resist the forces acting under Wang Yuan and Zheng Shan 109.
• The Gao Family surrendered most of its power and wealth in exchange for survival 112.
• Panshi Fist Academy became Gaoye City’s “uncrowned king,” with Wang Yuan as the city’s decisive authority 108 112.

Wang Yuan redistributed ordinary wealth as rewards and compensation, while the most valuable cultivation resources were returned to the academy for controlled safekeeping and distribution 109.

The Wang family’s status rose with the new order. Wang Yuan arranged for their relocation under martial escort, and they were settled in a secure Inner City courtyard within several days 112.

Bitao Sect Intervention

The city remained on alert after the first crisis because scattered bandits and possible Incense God Cult retaliation continued to threaten its fragile peace. Gao Tianci, the Gao Family’s eldest young master and a Bitao Sect disciple, returned with a delegation that included Elder Danxia, a Late Transformation Force expert. He discovered that the city gates were now controlled by Panshi Fist Academy rather than the old families 113 114.

Zheng Shan received the visitors and explained the collapse of the former ruling order and Wang Yuan’s role in defeating Yuan Gang. Elder Danxia dismissed the conflict as a minor frontier disturbance and ordered the local leaders detained for interrogation. Zheng Shan refused to submit to outside coercion 115.

Wang Yuan subsequently confronted Danxia, withstood his attacks, and demonstrated that even a senior Prefecture City sect expert could not easily impose authority on Gaoye City. He openly acknowledged his responsibility for killing Yuan Gang, Huang Chengzong, and Ye Xiong, as well as severely wounding Gao Shiqing, and declared that Panshi Fist Academy ruled because his strength made opposition impossible. The upheaval also disrupted Bitao Sect-connected regional interests and sources of wealth 117.

Second Siege

Years later, Gaoye City was besieged from three sides by Ji Province refugees, the Incense God Cult, and surviving forces of the Gao, Ye, and Huang Families. Panshi Fist Academy led the defense under Zheng Shan, aided by Shi Long, Zheng Ying, and Shang Yong 273.

Internal disunity threatened the defense before the walls were breached. When the Blustering Wind Martial Hall master declared that he would open the gates, Zheng Shan killed him with a single fist strike and warned the remaining hall masters against surrender or undermining morale 273.

The attacking alliance was directed by Cult Leader Xu Fu and the family leaders Gao Qiu, Ye Chen, and Huang Laoxie. Their strategy used desperate refugees as an expendable vanguard, family remnants to stir unrest inside the walls, and cult elites to lead the assault. They intended to eradicate Panshi Fist Academy and take control of the city’s martial organizations, defenses, grain, and finances 274.

The siege nearly destroyed the city. A martial hall master bribed by the enemy opened the South City side gate, allowing thousands of refugees, cultists, and enemy soldiers to enter 275. Wang Yuan returned from Cloud Province with Kaoshan Sect cavalry, deathsworn guards, and Liu Canglan, reversing the battle’s outcome 275.

At Wang Yuan’s command, Liu Canglan killed Xu Fu and the three family leaders, then eliminated the remaining principal instigators. A hundred Black-Armored Cavalry riders and thirty black-clad warriors suppressed armed looters, rebel soldiers, and hidden cultists. Wang Yuan explicitly distinguished innocent or misled refugees from active perpetrators and ordered unarmed civilians spared 276.

Afterward, Wang Yuan executed the traitorous hall master and imposed four laws:

1. Martial artists were required to defend the city; fleeing or surrendering was punishable by death.
2. All martial halls were placed under Panshi Fist Academy’s command.
3. Incense God Cult remnants, hidden family forces, and agitators were to be eradicated.
4. Refugees could remain and receive aid, but looting and armed disorder were punishable by execution. 278

The remaining family forces and the Incense God Cult were subsequently destroyed, while refugees were resettled and the city’s defenses restored 279.

Trade resumed and daily life returned to peace, but Wang Yuan regarded this recovery as temporary. Recognizing the frontier city’s vulnerability to the wider war, he planned to relocate his family, master, fellow disciples, and the academy to the Kaoshan Sect heartland once circumstances made departure possible 280.

Imperial Court Confrontation and Evacuation

Gaoye City later faced an Imperial Court expedition led by Zhou Cheng. Acting on outdated intelligence, the general believed the city remained a rebel stronghold controlled by the great families and the Incense God Cult, despite its visible recovery 280 281.

Zheng Shan initially opened the gates and approached Zhou Cheng alone to explain that the rebellion had already been suppressed. Zhou refused to accept his account, demanded the surrender of the city’s martial artists and armories, and threatened its inhabitants with destruction 281.

Wang Yuan anticipated the confrontation and used Zhou Cheng’s ambition to lure the Imperial cavalry into the city. After subduing the commanders and troops, he gained control over the city’s military strength and defenses 282 286.

Shi Long enticed Zhou Cheng with the prospect of capturing a Kaoshan Sect Dao Child and directed him to the County Office, where Wang Yuan waited. Zhou Cheng subsequently acted under the Evil God’s Eye’s control, presenting Wang Yuan as a supposed imperial prince. Promised gold and silver drew the cavalrymen into the central square without their weapons or armor, allowing concealed black-clad warriors to surround and capture them 282 284.

The soldiers surrendered after Zhou Cheng offered rewards and clemency while Liu Canglan’s martial pressure made resistance hopeless. Strategist Wu Yong and three commandants privately intended to escape and report the defection, but Wang Yuan detected and bound their minds, removing the remaining opposition 285 286.

Learning that Xiao Jin’s massive Imperial force was advancing through Cloud Province and that Gaoye City had been marked for destruction, Wang Yuan ordered a full evacuation 286.

Over three days:

• Imperial cavalry were reorganized under Wang Yuan’s control.
• Residents willing to leave were registered and prepared for travel.
• Elderly and infirm residents who remained received food and silver.
• Treasury wealth, weapons, medicinal supplies, grain, ore, cloth, and other resources were loaded onto hundreds of carts.
• The Wang family, Panshi Fist Academy, soldiers, civilians, and deathsworn departed toward Kaoshan Sect. 286

The city was left entirely empty. Before departing, Wang Yuan reflected that the small frontier city could not withstand the larger storms of the era 287.

The southbound procession included several thousand civilians, approximately a thousand cavalrymen, hundreds of supply carts, and Liu Canglan’s deathsworn escort. Its departure was orderly rather than a panicked flight, preserving the community’s people, military strength, and material resources 287.

Resettlement in Qinghe Prefecture City

The evacuation caravan subsequently reached Qinghe Prefecture City, a Kaoshan Sect-controlled city in the depths of Cloud Province. Wang Yuan’s parents, sister, and her household had endured days of exhausting travel from Gaoye City. The arrival provided them with a secure place to settle, while the cavalry and hundreds of supply wagons entered under Wang Yuan’s leadership 296.

Qinghe took in several thousand civilians from Gaoye City. By the time Luo Qingyi and Yan Wushuang visited, the receiving city showed no visible congestion or disorder despite the added population: its streets lacked begging refugees and war-damaged houses, and its administration remained disciplined and peaceful 319.

Notable Locations

• Panshi Fist Academy — The city’s leading martial institution under Zheng Shan; later its governing authority and military center 9 278.
• Wang Family Courtyard — Wang Yuan’s family residence during the later siege; Zheng Shan urged the family to escape through a secret passage, but they chose to remain with the city 274.
• Drunken Immortal Tower — Prestigious South District restaurant frequented by Shang Yong and used for important discussions concerning trade and city security 30.
• Yangwu Training Ground — Venue of the Outer City Martial Arts Gathering, where fighters from local martial organizations competed by Blood Change tier 58.
• Prosperity Freight Depot — Dock-district site searched by allied martial halls for the Ye Family’s hidden treasury 109.
• Gao Family Secret Vault — Hidden beneath a funeral-paper shop in Ci’an Ward; contained medicinal resources, rare materials, martial rubbings, and the Heavenly Net Entangling Silk Force legacy 105 107.
• Abandoned Land God Temple — Site of an underground Incense God Cult chamber in the southern slums, containing strange symbols, green lamps, and a faceless idol 81.
• Western City Gate — Defensive position near the battlefield of the Black Wind Bandit crisis and the reception point for Gao Tianci’s Bitao Sect delegation 89 100 114.
• South City Side Gate — Opened by the bribed Barbarian Bear Martial Hall master during the second siege, allowing the attacking alliance to enter the city 275.
• County Office — Location where Wang Yuan awaited Zhou Cheng after the general was lured into the city 282.
• Central Square — Site of the supposed reward distribution used to disarm and capture the Imperial cavalry 284.

Trivia

• Gaoye City’s name is derived from the surnames of the Gao and Ye Families 9.
• At one point, the entire city’s gates were shut under martial law while Panshi Fist Academy and Gao Family forces suppressed looting and hunted cult and family remnants 109.
• The city survived multiple changes of regime but was ultimately abandoned not through defeat in battle, but because its defenders could not withstand the approaching Grandmaster-led Imperial campaign 286 287.
• Zheng Shan and the Wang family initially refused to abandon the city during the second siege, choosing to share its fate. They later accepted migration when the scale of Xiao Jin’s approaching army made continued defense untenable 274 286.
• Although the departing city is described as empty, Wang Yuan did not compel the handful of elderly and infirm residents unwilling to travel to join the caravan; they were given food and silver instead 286 287.