Qinghe Commandery City

The Qinghe Commandery Territory lay in the southeastern part of Yangzhou Territory. Its eastern edge bordered the vast, boundless Eastern Sea, while a great river wound from west to east across the entire region. It was called the Changqing River, and it was one of the sources of the commandery's name.

A great city also stood along both banks of the Changqing River—the Qinghe Commandery City!

The Qinghe Commandery Territory had been established for over ten thousand years. Aside from the low-ranked cultivation families living in Qinghe Commandery City, there were five true cultivation families that dominated life and death within the city.

They were the Sixth-Rank Cultivation Family, the Baili Family; the Sixth-Rank Cultivation Family, the Xu Family; the Sixth-Rank Cultivation Family, the Jin Family; the Sixth-Rank Cultivation Family, the Li Family; and the Fifth-Rank Cultivation Family, the Tianhai Family.

The Fifth-Rank Cultivation Family Tianhai Family had attained its rank because of the political achievements required of the former Commandery Governor of the Qinghe Commandery Territory, Tang Shouyuan. Before resigning from his post as Commandery Governor, he had given the Sixth-Rank Cultivation Family Tianhai Family—which had maintained fairly good relations with him—a helping hand from above, directly promoting it to a Fifth-Rank Cultivation Family.

Originally, the Sixth-Rank Cultivation Family Baili Family, the Sixth-Rank Cultivation Family Xu Family, the Sixth-Rank Cultivation Family Jin Family, the Sixth-Rank Cultivation Family Li Family, and the Fifth-Rank Cultivation Family Tianhai Family had all been Sixth-Rank Cultivation Families. The foundations and strength of these five Ranked Families had been almost identical.

If one absolutely had to name a foremost Ranked Family, it would be the current Fifth-Rank Cultivation Family Tianhai Family.

Back when the Tianhai Family had still been a Sixth-Rank Cultivation Family, its foundations and strength had already slightly surpassed those of the other