Black Mud City

Biodata

Feature	Details
Name	Black Mud City (玄泥城)
Type	Immortal city
Affiliation	Azure Firmament Sword Sect
Government	Administered by the Black Mud City Lord and the City Lord's Manor
Status	Its city-protecting grand formation and Heaven-Locking Array have collapsed; its City Lord was killed by Lu Chen 51 77
First Appearance	Chapter 1

Layout and Conditions

• Outer city — Centered on the perpetually dark, foul-smelling Mud Alley, where mortals live among muddy water, leaking huts, hunger, and refuse. Mortal residents are subject to guards, tribute demands, and the threat of being expelled to feed demon beasts. 1 13
• Inner city — A white-jade, formation-protected district inhabited by cultivators and immortal officials. Its barrier contains enduring spiritual energy, sharply contrasting the filth and deprivation outside. 1 32
• City Lord's Manor — The inner city's administrative center and seat of the City Lord. It becomes the landing site for Azure Firmament Sword Sect vessels and envoys investigating the city's crises. 12 34
• Mines and outskirts — The city's authorities maintain mine slaves, later using them as expendable scouts to test arrays and poisonous terrain around Immortal-Breaking Mountain. 43 52 54

Defenses and Symbols of Authority

City-Guarding Stele

A black Dao Stele stood at the boundary between the outer and inner cities. Ten zhang tall and initially weighing thirty thousand jin, it bore ancient patterns and represented immortal sect authority over Black Mud City's mortals. 7

• Its shadow covered the square dividing immortals from mortals, while its aura suppressed the city's lower-class residents. 7
• Outer-city mortals were required to kowtow before it each morning in order to pay tribute; failure to do so could result in expulsion from the city. 7
• Lu Chen resonated with the stele through his blood and qi, activated its desolate rune, then tore it from the city and dragged it into the wilderness. 8 10
• Fragments of the stele remained in Black Mud City, concealing blood aura, empowering Zhang Elder, and later destabilizing the formation core. 24 32 43

City-Protecting Grand Formation

The inner city relied on a large formation system that maintained its barrier and defenses.

• Lu Chen's use of the City-Guarding Stele destroyed part of the inner-city wall and damaged the formation. 9
• Formation masters attempted repairs by draining spirit stones and demanding living human qi and blood from outer-city residents. 43
• The formation core was destroyed amid the commander's mutation and Lu Chen's intervention, causing a violent backlash that blinded more than a hundred Azure Firmament Sword Sect sword cultivators. 47 48 52
• The city's Heaven-Locking Array completely collapsed following the destruction of its array cores. 51

Governance and Social Order

• Black Mud City Lord — A Golden Core cultivator and Azure Firmament Sword Sect official who ruled from the inner city. He repeatedly concealed failures from the sect, framed Lu Chen and the Blood Demon Sect, and treated outer-city residents as resources for cultivation. 10 12 52 76
• Immortal City guards — Black-iron-armored enforcers who patrol the outer city, collect tribute, raid homes, and seize civilians for formation repairs. 6 13 32
• Formation masters — Inner-city specialists responsible for defensive arrays; they used mine slaves and human sacrifices to repair the damaged grand formation. 6 43
• Heavy cavalry — The City Lord's strongest conventional force, composed of body-refining martial cultivators in array-inscribed black-iron armor and mounted on Ironclad Rhinos. 25
• Mine slaves — A large exploited labor population. After the formation's collapse, over a hundred escaped under Fourth Li's leadership rather than remain under the city's rule. 52 60

History

Lu Chen's Assault and the Loss of the City-Guarding Stele

Lu Chen emerged from Mud Alley and forced his way toward the inner city while carrying A-Nan. The city's guards and formation masters deployed a Beast-Trapping Formation against him, but he broke it with a single punch. 6 7

At the boundary square, Lu Chen confronted the City-Guarding Stele, sensed a bloodline resonance from it, and activated its ancient desolate power. He used the thirty-thousand-jin stele to kill a Foundation Establishment steward and smash through part of the inner-city wall. 7 8 9

Lu Chen then dragged the stele out through the ruins and left Black Mud City for the wilderness. The City Lord lacked the courage to pursue him and ordered his subordinates to report that an Azure-Water Qilin and Blood Demon Sect remnants had caused the destruction. 10 12

Mortal Resistance in Mud Alley

In the aftermath, the authorities imposed triple tribute on the outer city and threatened to seize children as fuel for formation repairs. 13 32

The stele's fall inspired Black Mud City's oppressed residents to resist. Zhang Elder killed a guard, and Fourth Li helped conceal the corpse; other Mud Alley residents covertly hindered the guards' investigation. 22 24

A blood-stained stele fragment healed Zhang Elder's shattered waist and strengthened him. Its influence later spread to the guard commander, whose qi deviation and transformation turned the damaged formation core into a site of carnage. 32 43 45

Collapse of the Grand Formation

The transformed guard commander attacked the returning City Lord and seriously injured him despite being a mortal guard without conventional cultivation. Fourth Li rescued Zhang Elder during the chaos. 47 48

Lu Chen destroyed the formation's eye, creating a storm that blinded cultivators' divine senses and brought down the Heaven-Locking Array. The City Lord and surviving sect cultivators concealed the truth by blaming a Golden Core Blood Demon Sect cultivator. 48 51 52

The Azure Firmament Sword Sect subsequently ordered Black Mud City's officials to drive mine slaves into the dangerous terrain around Immortal-Breaking Mountain as disposable scouts. 52 54

Death of the City Lord

After the collapse, the City Lord secretly seized a black fragmentary stele and absorbed its source spiritual energy. The Desolate Blood hidden within it infected his Golden Core and eventually caused destructive backlash. 52 60 61

While pursuing Lu Chen into the wilderness, the City Lord attempted to ambush him and seize A-Nan's blood-and-qi divine fetus. Lu Chen defeated him, extracted the Desolate Blood made from Black Mud City residents' lives, and finally stomped the City Lord to death. 68 72 73 76 77

Related Individuals

• Lu Chen — Destroyed the city's formations, removed its City-Guarding Stele, and killed its City Lord. 6 10 51 77
• A-Nan — Protected by Lu Chen during the initial assault on the city; the City Lord later sought to seize her blood-and-qi divine fetus. 6 68 72
• Black Mud City Lord — Golden Core ruler of the city; concealed the destruction of its defenses and used commoners' lives to refine Desolate Blood before his death. 10 52 76 77
• Zhang Elder — Mud Alley resident whose defiance began after the stele's fall; he used a fragment of the stele to heal himself and resist the guards. 13 24 32
• Fourth Li — Outer-city butcher who joined Zhang Elder's resistance, escaped the city with mine slaves, and became an Ultimate Path cultivator. 41 49 60
• Song Que — Azure Firmament Sword Sect steward who arrived to investigate the death of Chen Yuanshan and ordered Black Mud City's surrounding routes sealed. 34
• Chen Yuanshan — Foundation Establishment retainer of Black Mud City who seized command of its heavy cavalry in pursuit of Lu Chen. 22 25