Giant Peak Mountain Range

Biodata

Geography

The range is a vast, east–west chain of towering mountains whose full extent was unknown even to nearby tribes. Its peaks, valleys, forests, marshes, and secondary ranges form a major natural barrier between regions. 21 205

• The surveyed range contains 373,973 mountains of varying sizes. 369
• Its main body resembles an east-facing, multi-clawed dragon; secondary ranges spread from both sides like claws. 355
• Larger secondary ranges extend for hundreds of thousands of li, while smaller ones span thousands; valleys, plains, and marshes lie between them. 366
• The easternmost section includes an 8,000-zhang peak, the tallest mountain at that end of the range. 320
• A vast southeastern Great Marsh supports abundant aquatic life and can supply food for the Alliance, though it is difficult to develop. 370
• The range’s Source Power had become severely depleted compared with eight thousand years earlier, in part because grottoes drew power from its northern and southern areas. 293 327

Notable Locations

Inhabitants and Dangers

The Giant Peaks contain dense primeval forests, poisonous insects, miasma, and powerful desolate beasts. Sunless forest floors are layered with rotting vegetation inhabited by venomous spiders and corrosive insects. 197

• Desolate beasts include Silver-Striped Desolate Bears, Golden Winged Sword Fang Tigers, Dragon Horn beasts, Purple Cloud Sky Eagles, Black Fur Hous, and many apex Third and Fourth Tier creatures. 197 201
• A colossal nine-tailed, single-horned fiery beast once crashed into the mountains, scattering blood that triggered a large-scale beast tide among nearby desolate beasts. 201
• Three Fifth Tier desolate beasts effectively controlled much of the range; their late- and peak-Fourth Tier subordinates defended territorial divisions. 214
• The Fifth Tier Feiyi is regarded as a hostile presence whose emergence could cause drought. 214 324
• The Fifth Tier Snow Beast was considered a possible contact rather than a confirmed enemy. 324
• The Crimson Fire Lu Wu, a Fifth Tier Shan Hai variant descendant, lived in the range but initially kept little interest in the territories of surrounding races. 293 294

History

The mountain range has existed for an unknown length of time. Humans had lived there since before the Shan Hai Calendar, while ruins and traces throughout the mountains indicate that many other beings also flourished there in earlier eras. 359

A Wood Ginger Sacred Clan ancestor once crossed mountains and seas after learning that a great beast had descended in the Giant Peaks and nourished living beings. The clan failed to seize the opportunity, lost its remaining Sixth Tier ancestor in the ensuing conflict, and later bowed to the Mysterious Bird after it became the range’s overlord. 315

More than eight thousand years before the present story, the Mysterious Bird preyed upon Yongyi. Its grottoes continued drawing Source Power from both sides of the Giant Peak Mountain Range, hindering the cultivation of the surrounding Human Race. 327

Exploration and Human Expansion

The Blazing Flame Tribe gradually expanded its exploration into the range, surveying terrain, waterways, farming land, medicinal-herb environments, desolate-beast herds, and mineral deposits. 45

By the time of the search for the Five Elements Spirit Land, tribal teams had repeatedly entered the mountains. Huo Kui’s group discovered an Innate Lesser Spirit Clan, while Huo Qing’s expedition was devastated by the beast tide caused by the fiery giant beast’s blood. 197 200 201

Shen Can’s later discoveries confirmed that the range contained other humans, ancient maps, routes potentially connecting to Dai Land, and multiple unexplored ruins. 205 359

• The Guanxiong Tribe once held territory in the northwest of the range but migrated away after judging the Human Race Alliance too formidable. 366
• Alliance surveys later found no other major races in the areas reached by the range’s secondary branches, only scattered tribes and clans. 366
• The Alliance mapped the range and formally treated the northern and southern secondary-range territories as part of its jurisdiction. 366

Heaven-Sealing Earth-Locking Great Formation

Leaping Dragon Gate Plan

Shen Can designed the Human Race Alliance’s formation project around the range’s dragon-like terrain. The plan sought to seal the Mysterious Bird by harmonizing the mountains and rivers below with the stars above. 354 355

Effects on the Range

• The activated first-layer formation covered the Giant Peak Mountain Range in starlight and created an independent star realm above it. 373
• Formation cores were integrated into the mountains at an average spacing of roughly one core per three mountains. 369
• Star power washed away more than half of the range’s Five Element Source Power within days, eventually making ordinary Five Element cultivation extremely difficult. 376
• The displaced Five Element Source Power formed a vast flowing-light boundary outside the range as it collided with the incoming star power. 376
• The formation can attack with stored star power, though Shen Can avoided testing its full Sixth Tier force unnecessarily. 376
• Its boundaries can be retracted or extended by tens of thousands of li, enabling the Alliance to conceal traps within the mountain terrain. 390
• A reconfigured outer formation trapped Yin Zhang and Tong Bei Luoping in a valley before they could escape. 411