Anping County

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Anping County
Original Name	安平县
Type	County and fortified county seat 223 242
Affiliation	Great Zhou Immortal Dynasty; administered by Great Wall Prefecture in Qingzhou 221 223 258
Location	Southern region of Great Wall Prefecture; downstream from neighboring Longwind County along the Three-Bath River 223 231
Administrative Divisions	Seventy-two townships 229
Magistrates	Qian Shen → Chu Bai → Ji Li 223 293
Guardian Deity	Locust Elder 236
Status	Prosperous fortified county; later remains under Ji Li’s administration 258 293
Notable Connection	Chu Bai’s hometown, former jurisdiction, and principal power base 221 256

Geography and Locations

Location	Description
County Yamen	Administrative headquarters housing the magistrate’s offices, treasury, workshops, and underground cultivation chambers. A spirit-gathering and heat-locking formation protects the compound 226 233 258.
Three-Bath River	Anping’s mother river and a longstanding source of resource disputes with upstream Longwind County. Its defensive line is maintained by the Water Earl 231 242.
Backwater Bend	Narrow, U-shaped river channel where mystic origin breath soil forms. Chu Bai uses its terrain to trap a water-demon tide 238.
Great Harvest Township	Located fifty li south of the county seat; historically Anping’s granary and later a major source of Bloodfang Rice 229 230.
Old Red Copper Mine	Fifty li west of the city, abandoned for thirty years before its reopening. Longwind’s illegal tunnel exposes valuable second-tier blazing copper in its deeper strata 231 237.
Anping Spirit Market	Eastern-city trading district whose Treasure Pavilion and bulk spiritual-goods trade are controlled by the County Yamen 237.
Locust Elder Shrine	Built by residents around the guardian’s enormous tree in the city’s northwest corner 237.
Outer City	Refugee-built fortified expansion surrounding the old inner city, with walls constructed from bluestone, blazing copper, and iron 242 245.

Government and Administration

County Authority

• The magistrate’s Official Seal connects its holder to Anping’s earth-vein Fortune and the Great Zhou law net. Its transfer grants authority over the county’s military, civil, and judicial affairs 223.
• Before Chu Bai’s return, the Wang, Li, and Zhao clans controlled seventy percent of the county’s spirit fields and mineral veins. Deputy Magistrate Wang dominated public funds, grain, and taxation 223.
• Qian Shen maintained stability through compromise while avoiding conflicts that could damage his assessment or complicate his Heavenly Examination preparations 223.
• Chu Bai established direct financial control by exposing false disaster claims and embezzlement, arresting clerk Wang Fugui, and obtaining the county storeroom keys 226.

Principal Officials

Official	Position and Responsibilities
Chu Bai	Magistrate during the county’s major transformation; directs reforms, military development, and emergency defense 223 240.
Ji Li	Later magistrate; pledges to maintain Anping while Chu Bai cultivates in seclusion 293.
Zhang Cheng	County Commandant and head of the Demon-Suppression Office; oversees enforcement and troop training 223 233.
Su Mu	Trusted administrator handling accounts, production, intelligence purchases, and refugee resettlement 226 233 240 244.
Zhao Tie	Chief constable commanding the runners and enforcing public order 224 228.
Lin Xuan	Registrar responsible for supplies, storehouses, and formations; constructs the concealed countermeasure against Longwind 224 232.
Han Xingmo	Later Deputy Chief of the Water Office, responsible for waterways, formations, and earth-vein nodes 239.
Hu Hao and Pang Song	Later deputy chiefs of the Demon-Suppression Office and commanders of the Mystic Guards 239.
Wang Tianyang	Entrenched deputy magistrate associated with the Wang Household; challenges Chu Bai’s financial and reform policies 226 234.

History

Early Demon-Suppression Reforms

After graduating from the Dao Academy, Chu Bai returned to Anping to serve under Zhang Cheng. The newly merged Demon-Suppression Office was divided into rival factions: the First Squad served the magistrate, the Second answered to clans aligned with the deputy magistrate, and the Third received unwanted personnel and difficult assignments 114 117.

Chu Bai subsequently rebuilt the Demon-Slaying Squad around ability and commitment, expanding it to 110 members. Over six months, its work reduced demon cases by nearly forty percent. Continued patrols brought a period of peace in which residents could leave their doors unbarred at night 132 138 144.

That stability was interrupted when the incoming Brook Water Earl was assassinated at First-Line Gorge. The destruction of his divine vessel disrupted the river’s water veins and opened a gap in the law net, forcing Anping’s officials to blockade the river and assist the prefectural investigation 147.

Chu Bai’s Magistracy

The provincial government appointed Chu Bai magistrate after Qian Shen completed his term. The posting returned him to his homeland while providing governing experience and removing him from the immediate political struggles of the prefectural and provincial capitals 221.

His first measures addressed winter survival: fair-priced coal sales, repairs to cold-prevention formations, irrigation restoration, and preparations for spring planting. Raids against five coal-hoarding businesses recovered 34,000 Spirit Stones and 100,000 jin of Spirit Coal 225 226.

The revival of Anping’s earth veins brought prosperity but attracted outsiders seeking its resources. Chu Bai permitted lawful trade while using the constabulary, Water Office, and his official authority to suppress theft and attacks 228.

Conflict with Longwind County

Anping and upstream Longwind had disputed irrigation water, timber, and other resources for over a century. The rivalry escalated when Longwind officials secretly excavated beneath the border and drove Gold-Devouring Rats into Great Harvest Township to conceal their survey of Anping’s earth veins 231.

Chu Bai discovered that Magistrate Sun Bu’er intended to siphon Anping’s spiritual energy and Fortune through a Meridian-Severing Grand Array. He concealed a Purple Pole Formation Flag within an apparently weak defensive formation, allowing the enemy array to connect before reversing its flow 232 233.

During the reversal, Chu Bai targeted Sun’s private Spirit-Gathering Pool rather than Longwind’s public water veins. Nevertheless, the subsequent account links Longwind’s depleted earth veins to drought and a mutant locust plague. Sun’s refusal to provide relief and his increased taxation worsened the disaster, driving roughly fifty thousand refugees toward Anping 236 237.

Anping admitted and resettled the refugees. The prefecture later punished Sun and rewarded Chu Bai, treating the preservation of the refugees and their human Fortune as decisive 240.

Refuge and Wartime Expansion

As awakened demons devastated Qingzhou, Anping opened its gates to more than 100,000 additional refugees, including thousands of Rogue Cultivators. Food and protection were conditional on labor, military service where applicable, and strict obedience; attempts to incite attacks on the granaries were violently suppressed 242.

The new population built a fortified Outer City and supplied labor for farming, mining, and production. Chu Bai rejected proposals to annex neighboring counties, stating that Anping’s strength existed to protect its people rather than pursue dominion 242 243.

Great Wall Prefecture then conscripted Anping’s 800 Black-Armored Guards as a vanguard under the Lu Household. Chu Bai outmaneuvered the attempt to sacrifice them, intervened after the coalition and demon king had weakened one another, and seized battlefield command 245 248 250.

His subsequent southern army grew to fifty thousand and reclaimed seven county seats. After its formal disbandment, more than thirty thousand soldiers volunteered to settle in Anping with their families. Rewards placed the lands, spirit-rice fields, and medicinal gardens of five devastated counties under Anping’s jurisdiction 256 257.

Economy and Public Welfare

Agriculture and Medicine

• Bloodfang Rice: Strategic crop protected by county decree. Smallholders retain eighty percent of their yield; tenant-grown harvests are divided forty percent to tenants, thirty percent to landlords, and thirty percent to the Yamen 230.
• Golden Jade Soup: Distributed commercially through the People’s Benefit Medicine Bureau, with free diluted portions improving poor residents’ health 228.
• Mystic origin breath soil: Diluted into farmland and irrigation channels, producing ten thousand mu of exceptional spiritual fields by the officers’ return from the Heavenly Examination 238 239.
• Public cultivation access: Anping Martial Hall provides free nourishment and the Qi-Guiding Art, though court ordination rules still restrict most commoners to the third Qi Refining layer 234.
• Refugee resettlement: Longwind’s displaced population is settled in thirty-six new villages and assigned work in agriculture, mining, workshops, and military training 240.

Trade and Manufacturing

• Centralized spirit trade: Private markets are abolished, and bulk spiritual-goods transactions must pass through the Yamen-owned Anping Spirit Market 237.
• Flagship goods: Golden Jade Soup, Bloodfang Rice, and Metal-Repelling Soft Armor attract merchants and cultivators from surrounding counties 237.
• Artifact-Refining Workshop: Converts demon hides, bones, and other remains into armor, bone-piercing nails, and armor-piercing crossbow bolts. Initial equipment sets cost less than one-tenth of an ordinary magical artifact 233.
• Military provisioning: Demon cores and meat support the Military Academy, while shells and bones supply the workshop 238.
• Postwar reserves: Supplies sent home during the Lingchang campaign are reported sufficient to sustain the Medicine Bureau and Military Academy for thirty years 256.

Defenses and Military Development

Power Progression

Anping’s documented progression concerns its collective military strength rather than a cultivation realm belonging to the county itself.

Stage / Realm / Level	Chapter	Notes
Reequipped county force	233	Demon-derived equipment and enhanced rations support two hundred elite constables; one soldier advances from Qi Refining Early-Stage to Mid-Stage.
Operational Black-Armored Guards	236	Disciplined formations and specialized weapons destroy emerging wraiths and yin beasts without casualties.
Three Foundation Establishment examination successes	239	Han Xingmo places ninety-eighth on the Azure Ordination Ranking; Hu Hao and Pang Song achieve Foundation Establishment.
Eight-hundred-strong elite force	240 245	Wartime mobilization establishes the force cap; the Guards deploy with Gold-Averting Mystic Armor and poisoned crossbows.
Qi Refining Late-Stage to Perfection core	254	All eight hundred elites reach Late-Stage or Perfection and carry high-grade Qi Refining magical artifacts.
Expanded wartime army	256	Chu Bai’s force grows to fifty thousand through recruitment of scattered soldiers and refugees; the original Guards remain largely unscathed.
Postwar garrison expansion	257	More than thirty thousand discharged soldiers choose Anping; background checks and Military Academy retraining precede garrison service.
Upgraded elite equipment and command	258	Guards receive armor with miniature defensive formations and standard mid-grade magical-artifact halberds; Zhang Cheng, Hu Hao, and Pang Song reach Foundation Establishment Middle Stage.

Defensive Infrastructure

• City-Guarding Grand Formation: Fed continuously by Locust Elder’s roots, which also obstruct underground infiltration 242.
• River defenses: The Water Earl maintains tens of thousands of Underwater Blade Currents against demons approaching through the Three-Bath River 242.
• Outer walls: Built from bluestone and molten blazing-copper iron, with defensive runes and guarded positions 242 245.
• Early warning: A blazing-copper Demon-Warding Alarm Bell alerts the garrison at the southern gate 242.
• Wartime controls: Food, ore, and medicine are placed under emergency control when ancient Demon Races and Demon Kings begin awakening 240.

Spiritual Infrastructure and Fortune

Locust Elder

• Chu Bai formally registers Locust Elder as Anping’s guardian deity after protecting his Foundation Establishment breakthrough 236.
• His breakthrough releases golden spirit rain that heals residents and helps cultivators and soldiers overcome bottlenecks 237.
• His roots become the core of the Lesser Celestial Circuit Spirit-Gathering Array, filtering harsh geng metal and earthfire qi into gentler spiritual energy that nourishes the county 237.

Public Devotion

• Residents’ gratitude flows through the Official Seal and strengthens Chu Bai’s Fortune Golden Body 234 239.
• Refugee loyalty generates Humanity’s Willing Force and manifests a five-clawed golden dragon, indicating that Anping’s standing has exceeded that of an ordinary county 242.
• By the end of Chu Bai’s three-year term, the text describes Anping as surpassing the prefectural city in population, prosperity, living standards, and military strength 258.

Later Story Role

• Chu Bai’s departure: Hundreds of thousands of residents accompany him to the gate before he leaves for the Purple Register Heavenly Examination, entrusting Anping’s defense to its commanders and spiritual guardians 258.
• Return under Ji Li: After the Heavenly Abyss Fragment Realm, Chu Bai returns to find Ji Li serving as magistrate. The community’s goodwill helps contain his immense Karmic Obstruction 293.
• Purple Abode breakthrough: Anping becomes the site of Chu Bai’s dangerous ascension. Its residents pray rather than flee, and their collective Vow Power weakens the tribulation’s first strike; he ultimately destroys the tribulation without sacrificing the county 294.