Li Chen had long since learned that the houses of the Chess Mountain Trade Alliance had originally been founded by pioneers from the underworld and had developed through a thousand years of wind and rain.
Their ancestors had been territorial lords just like him, successful figures who had carved out new lands in the underworld and established lasting foundations.
Rogue cultivators who built their own enterprises in the underworld would face death from old age after several centuries. They would then choose to spread their branches and leaves, raising descendants and disciples to sustain them in their twilight years.
This satisfied their need to pass down their Dao lineages and perpetuate the meaning of their lives. It was only human nature.
Yet the founding ancestors who opened up new territories struggled to attain longevity and would inevitably pass away. Their descendants might not reach greater heights, and at such times, powerful outsiders would inevitably seek to take over their spirit peaks. Wars would erupt, with each side fighting to the death, playing out tales in which the victors became kings and the defeated became outlaws.
Others allied and merged to form new powers. Generation after generation, the local magnates grew ever more numerous, jointly ruling the spirit peak blessed lands.
Chess Mountain had originally been the territory of a grand artisan from the underworld, founded upon a middle-grade blessed land. Throughout the generations, it had always maintained itself by retaining core formation cultivators, until Grand Artisan Meng settled there as a contracted attendant, continuing the cycle.
Initially, Grand Artisan Meng had merely been a foundation establishment master artisan elder. Only through the full support of the Chess Mountain Trade Alliance had he been able to grow, which was why he was bound by an attendant contract.
During his rise, Grand