Green Mountain Town

Biodata

Feature	Information
Name	Green Mountain Town (青山镇)
Affiliation	Great Li Dynasty; administered by a local yamen 115
Status	Inhabited; threatened by Anomalies and outside intervention 254 260
First Appearance	Chapter 5 5

Geography & Townscape

Green Mountain Town is a remote market town at the foot of the Black Mountain Range. It is the nearest town to Green Mountain Village, roughly two hours away on foot, and the only market town within one hundred li of the village 5.

• The town is enclosed on three sides by the outer ridges of the Black Mountain Range; a single rugged mountain road provides its connection to the outside world 126.
• Its location gives it access to hunting grounds and medicinal-herb valleys, but also exposes it to Demonic Beasts, Anomalies, and dangerous mountain routes 52 113 115.
• The settlement is built around bluestone-paved streets, gray-tiled roofs, tightly packed courtyards, and a stone archway at the entrance 7 39.
• Its main street supports food stalls, peddlers, vegetable sellers, blacksmiths, apothecaries, restaurants, gambling houses, and brothels 39 52 238.
• The eastern residential alleys include cleaner brick-walled courtyards protected by night patrols, unlike the less secure outskirts 39.

Population & Economy

Green Mountain Town has an estimated population of two to three thousand people, making it tiny beside Green Mountain County's population of roughly one hundred thousand 175.

Aspect	Details
Local trade	Hunters and herb gatherers sell game and medicinal plants in town; Hundred Flavors Tower purchases fresh game and seeks regular suppliers 7 52.
Cost of living	Five taels of silver can sustain an ordinary farming household for about a year 7.
Housing	A two-section residence in a safer neighborhood rents for ten taels of silver per year 39.
Martial instruction	The town has three martial halls, each charging ten taels of silver monthly; incomplete manuals cost one to five taels at local bookshops 7.
Cultivation resources	Blood-Qi Medicinal Herbs are available locally, but the town's limited resources cannot sustain high-level cultivation indefinitely 39 144.
Alchemy	The town has no known established alchemist; only rumors connect the Hall of Benevolent Relief to past pill refining 109.

Administration & Local Powers

The town yamen is led by Zhou Kailin, referred to as the town chief, town head, or town magistrate. Although it represents Great Li Dynasty authority, the yamen's resources and military strength are constrained by the town's remoteness and the influence of local factions 115 118 245.

Major factions

• Black Tiger Gang — Originally controlled gambling dens, usury, trafficking, and a medicinal-herb valley. Under Feng Chen, it became the town's dominant power and absorbed competing assets 52 109 112.
• Wang Clan Martial Hall — One of the town's major martial forces; it asserted that offending the Wang Family within one hundred li of the town was tantamount to risking one's life 31 43.
• Zhao Clan Martial Academy — A longtime rival of the Wang Clan Martial Hall. Its territory, businesses, and assets were seized by the Black Tiger Gang after Zhao Tianshan's death 43 109.
• Iron Blade Sect — A local faction destroyed by an Anomaly Suppression Bureau expert after refusing to provide demanded resources 245 246.

By the time Feng Chen controls the Black Tiger Gang, Wang Clan Martial Hall, and Zhao Clan Martial Academy, their combined businesses produce at least five thousand taels of silver in recorded monthly profit, excluding private dealings and unrecorded medicinal-herb trade 115 118.

Black Mountain Range

The Black Mountain Range is central to the town's survival and isolation. Its outer areas provide game, herbs, and farmland, while its deeper regions contain formidable wild beasts, Demonic Beasts, Anomalies, and hostile unexplained entities 4 52 113.

• Merchant caravans traveling between Green Mountain Town and Green Mountain County usually rely on yamen-organized escorts and Soul-Attracting Incense, which repels strange entities 125.
• Travel to Green Mountain County normally requires two days, including an overnight stop on the road 125.
• Even Body Tempering Eighth or Ninth Heaven Martial Artists may die in the mountains at night 113 115.
• The town's isolation becomes more severe when Anomalies kill caravans or block its routes to the outside world 138 139 178.

Story Role & Major Events

Feng Chen's arrival and settlement

Feng Chen first visits the town to sell hunted game. Hundred Flavors Tower buys three rabbits and three pheasants for three taels of silver, and he uses the visit to investigate local martial training and manual prices 7.

After conflict with the Wang Clan Martial Hall makes Green Mountain Village unsafe, Feng Chen and Lin Qing'er relocate to Green Mountain Town. They rent a residence, buy household goods, and begin using the town's medicinal-herb market to support cultivation 38 39.

Consolidation under the Black Tiger Gang

Feng Chen investigates the Black Tiger Gang's monopoly over a herb-rich valley before later taking control of the gang. Under his leadership, the gang defeats the Zhao Clan Martial Academy and seizes its businesses, territory, cash reserves, and medicinal herbs 52 109.

His rule transforms the town's balance of power. He accepts political marriage alliances with minor factions to stabilize his base and establishes a separate residence behind the gang headquarters 113. He later orders reforms: women at the gang's brothel must participate willingly, protection-fee collection is to end, and rental properties are to become a legitimate source of income 144.

Resource limits and mounting danger

As Feng Chen reaches Body Tempering Seventh Heaven, Green Mountain Town's cultivation resources prove inadequate for his continued advancement 144. The danger beyond town also rises: a merchant caravan is annihilated in the Black Mountain Range, its members found as dried corpses apparently killed by an Anomaly 138 139.

Feng Chen eventually leaves through the mountains for Green Mountain County, demonstrating that the town's isolation is no longer sustainable for his ambitions or safety 156 162.

Anomaly Suppression Bureau extortion

After Feng Chen's return as a True Qi Realm Martial Artist, the Anomaly Suppression Bureau arrives in town to deal with a nearby threat. Rather than immediately entering the mountains, its members demand medicinal herbs and silver from local forces 240 245.

The bureau destroys the Iron Blade Sect for refusal, then compels the Black Tiger Gang and other factions to contribute. The town ultimately pays six thousand portions of medicinal herbs and one hundred thousand taels of silver 245 246.

Weird Entity incident

Following the bureau's failed confrontation with a Second-Order Anomaly, Feng Chen detects a Weird Entity inside Green Mountain Town. The entity kills numerous people, including yamen officials, and attacks Zhou Kailin, Wang Yurou, and Li Xiaoting at a gang-controlled brothel 254 255.

Feng Chen defeats the entity with his saber techniques, then secretly takes medicinal materials and silver from the yamen amid the ensuing confusion 255 260.

Planned departure

By Chapter 260, Feng Chen considers Green Mountain Town too limited to remain his long-term base. He intends to move the Black Tiger Gang to Green Mountain County, where it can serve as a logistics network for obtaining cultivation resources 238 260.

Trivia

• The town's Hundred Herbs Hall shares its name with an unrelated herb shop in Green Mountain County; Feng Chen notes that the name is simply common 176.
• In Green Mountain Town, a Body Tempering Third Heaven Martial Artist is a notable expert, while Green Mountain County employs Martial Artists of that level as ordinary gate guards 171.
• At night, most of the town goes dark except for its gambling dens and brothels 173 238.