The four regions controlled by the Celestial Alliance bordered one another in the shape of a C. The Blue Region sat in the middle, with the Red Region above it and the Gold Region below. Beneath the Gold Region lay the Black Region, controlled by Yeqin.
They had named their regions after their own colors, but other regions were different. Most Regional Controllers named theirs according to personal preference.
In the hollow of the Celestial Alliance's C-shaped territory lay a region called White Jade. It had only one large city; the rest was countryside.
Countless villages surrounded that lone city like stars around the moon. It was White Jade City.
The ruler of White Jade City, and the Regional Controller of the White Jade Region, was also named White Jade.
All right.
A woman named White Jade had simply named both her region and her city after herself. It was no coincidence.
White Jade City had not been anything remarkable at first. Later, to attract more residents to the White Jade Region, White Jade issued a rule: mercenaries were exempt from tax.
Any cultivator registered as a mercenary owed the White Jade Region no tax on anything earned from mercenary jobs taken there.
Once the rule was announced, mercenaries poured into the White Jade Region. Some even made villages their bases, forming mercenary camps of every size.
Many Regional Controllers later followed her lead. But White Jade had gained a head start by issuing the rule first, and plenty of mercenaries had already pitched their tents in her region. The imitators soon found that the policy did them little good and withdrew it.
Over millions of years, White Jade City had grown into the largest mercenary market.
Even though White Jade City kept expanding, property in prime locations remained astonishingly