Great Li

Biodata

History

Great Li is described as the oldest of the eight dynasties, having endured for several thousand years 163. Roughly a thousand years before Su Yueli entered the Azure Cloud Ancient Kingdom Ruins, Great Li’s iron cavalry destroyed that kingdom 40. Su Yueli later witnessed an image of the conquest, including an invading army carrying banners bearing the character Li and a child resembling Gu Chen 197. Gu Chen was subsequently revealed to be the ancient kingdom’s surviving crown prince 204.

The dynasty’s imperial family sponsored the Martial Dao Tournament, through which Su Yueli first gained recognition in the capital 23 38. Decades later, Zhao Yan lost the struggle for succession and was exiled to the northern frontier 88. The emperor subsequently ordered investigations into an unidentified powerful fighter operating in Great Li and into the escaped demon Motian Xing 134 173 203.

Great Li and Great Wei also fought a prolonged border war over a medium-sized Superior Spirit Stone mine discovered on Great Li’s border. Both sides’ sects committed nearly all their forces to securing the resources, which aging patriarchs needed to prolong their lives 121. Renewed border clashes and the possibility of further war were later discussed by Great Gan’s crown prince, Jiang Yunsheng 155.

Great Li’s Fourteenth Realm protector, Zhao Xuankong, died fighting Motian Xing at Yin Mountain. His final request was that Su Yueli look after the dynasty 232. She suppressed an immediate succession crisis and later repelled an alliance demanding that Great Li surrender her 235 237 238.

The crisis began when ambitious princes and non-imperial kings mobilized forces toward the palace after Zhao Xuankong’s death. Su Yueli ordered Great Li to continue operating under its existing rules and threatened death to anyone inciting civil unrest 235. Her subsequent defeat of three Peak Thirteenth Realm enemies at the border reinforced the court’s obedience, while warnings issued in her name persuaded several vassal kings to withdraw their private armies 238.

Replacement by Great Xia

By the time Su Yueli returned after ten thousand years, Great Li had been replaced. An attendant told her that Great Xia’s First Emperor had replaced Great Li eight thousand three hundred years earlier, then conquered the remaining major powers and unified the continent under the Great Xia Immortal Dynasty 297.

Historical accounts encountered after her return distorted the events of Great Li’s final era. One jade slip described a white-haired witch who supposedly massacred one hundred thousand righteous cultivators in a blood formation and later fought a Demon Venerable over the division of spoils. These claims belonged to the later historical account, rather than establishing the truth of Su Yueli’s actions 296.

Government and Martial Institutions

• Imperial family — The emperor rules from the Imperial City; Zhao Xuankong served as the family’s supreme protector until his death 173 227 232.
• Martial Dao Tournament — Held once every thirty years. Entrants must be mortal martial artists whose bone age does not exceed forty 23 27.
• Tournament rewards — Su Yueli received a token marking her as Great Li’s foremost Martial Dao genius and claimed access to an imperial weapon and a key to the Azure Cloud Ancient Kingdom Ruins 38 39.
• Imperial City lineages — The Pang, Lin, Yun, and Chu lineages were its foremost Martial Dao families during Su Yueli’s first tournament; immortal sects backed them 29. The Pang and Lin lineages allied against the Yun and Chu lineages, with the Pang and Chu families maintaining a particularly bloody rivalry 29.
• State Preceptor proposal — After Zhao Xuankong’s death, officials offered Su Yueli a rank equal to the emperor’s and access to the treasury. She refused to let the court use her protection to wage expansionist wars 239 240.
• Imperial armories — Great Li maintained a Martial Dao weapons vault containing Yellow-, Profound-, and Earth-grade weapons. Heaven-grade weapons were stored separately, as were immortal artifacts for cultivators. Su Yueli selected the Shadow Fist Blades from the martial vault 39.
• Yun Tianheng — Great Li’s only Eighth-Rank Alchemist was regarded as a national treasure. Officials and War Gods depended on his services for breakthroughs, limiting the emperor’s willingness to offend him even when he refused to identify Su Yueli as his client 173.
• Regional vassal kings — Non-imperial kings held military power and maintained private armies. After Zhao Xuankong’s death, their secret recruitment and territorial ambitions exposed the imperial family’s weakening control over the regions 235 243.
• Intelligence network — Great Li maintained spies in other dynasties. Su Yueli proposed using those embedded in Great Qian and Great Xun to investigate the delegation massacre without making Han Yu’s involvement appear partisan 241.

Later Conflicts

• Su Yueli agreed to consider defending Great Li against invasion, but warned officials not to claim her support for campaigns they initiated 239 240.
• Court officials proposed annexing Great Yan’s three eastern provinces, citing their seven Spiritual Veins and two large Spirit Stone mines. Su Yueli refused to associate herself with the plan and threatened anyone who publicly claimed her permission 239.
• Two non-imperial kings in eastern Great Li requested permission to occupy three cities whose nearby Spirit Ore had become vulnerable during the Great Qian–Great Xun war. The court initially waited for Su Yueli’s response, then suspended further deployments when it became clear that it could not use her name to intimidate opponents 243 244.
• King Dongping nevertheless captured Anyuan City with 100,000 soldiers while falsely claiming her authorization 246. Su Yueli regarded this as a test of both her limits and the imperial family’s authority and departed to confront the responsible party herself 246.
• During the widening wars, Han Yu defended Great Li’s border cities under Su Yueli’s instruction not to attack first or pursue enemies beyond the border 253 267.
• The Demon Path besieged Great Li Pass. Han Yu led its defenders into battle despite being outmatched by enemies above the Thirteenth Realm and initially refused to request Su Yueli’s help 258.
• Great Li eventually entered the broader war after Great Liang seized its grain convoys and ignored repeated demands for their return 266.
• Great Liang subsequently deployed more than 300,000 troops beyond Great Li’s pass and demanded three border cities. Han Yu rejected the garrison’s proposal to attack first, while Su Yueli intervened and demanded Great Liang’s withdrawal 266 267.
• The withdrawal was disrupted when a Great Liang Peace Faction general was assassinated. A Great Li military badge and a sword mark resembling Han Yu’s cultivation technique were left to implicate Great Li, prompting 80,000 loyalists to turn back toward the border. Su Yueli found concealed Demon Qi in the wound and identified the Demon Path as the killer, but Great Liang’s officers continued resisting withdrawal 267.
• Great Li participated in the peace talks at Sky Evolution Mountain. When Great Liang accused it of detaining a merchant caravan, Great Li produced evidence that the caravan had secretly transported weapons. Su Yueli presented evidence of Demon Path impersonation and provocation, but the talks ultimately collapsed 268 270.
• Great Li was the first dynasty to act on the locations Su Yueli uncovered in Motian Xing’s agent network. Han Yu raided an Aristocratic Clan estate, subdued its resisting head, and freed dozens of missing cultivators from several dynasties. Their cultivation arts had been extracted to fabricate evidence of attacks 270.
• The wider investigation publicly exposed the Demon Path’s manipulation of the eight dynasties, including the false claim that Great Li had attacked a Great Liang merchant caravan. Nevertheless, Great Xun and Great Qian resumed fighting over captured cities and Spirit Ore mines 270.
• Before the decisive confrontation with Motian Xing, rumors spread through the gathered armies that Su Yueli had already taken control of Great Li and was using Han Yu’s People’s Protection Corps to prepare the conquest of the other dynasties. These were allegations circulating among the troops, not established accounts of Great Li’s government 278.

Society and Culture

• Immortal and martial establishments — The Imperial City housed numerous immortal and martial sects. The imperial family and great clans used resources gathered from across the dynasty to cultivate powerful experts and young geniuses 24.
• Mortal vulnerability — Great Li was a cultivation dynasty in which ordinary mortals remained profoundly disadvantaged. Su Yueli reflected that a mortal life was valued below a first-grade healing pill, despite the apparent comfort of everyday urban life 137.
• Bamboo Leaf Green — A common strong liquor during Great Li’s era, described as fiery and harsh enough for a single mouthful to leave a mortal drunk for an entire day. By Su Yueli’s return ten thousand years later, a tavern that had operated for over three hundred years did not recognize its name 298.