Yellowstone City

Biodata

Geography

• Basin setting: The Yellowstone City region occupies a vast basin enclosed by steep mountains, wilderness, and dense forests 16.
• Overland isolation: Ferocious Demon Beasts inhabit the surrounding terrain. No overland route is traversable by mortals, and even low-level cultivators face serious danger there 16.
• Regional urban center: Yellowstone City is the only city in the region, making it Wang Yu's intended destination for gathering information about the wider world before the attack on White Cloud Abbey 12.
• Redwater River: Runs through the region and connects it to Tongzhou in the Wu Kingdom 16.
• Regional scale: Tongzhou City's territory is five or six times larger than the Yellowstone City region 40.

City Layout and Security

• Fortifications: Yellow walls stand several dozen feet high. Three enormous white characters spelling the city's name are displayed above its broad gate 19.
• Gate guards: Guards in black iron armor inspect incoming and outgoing travelers and caravans 19.
• Entry procedure: On Wang Yu's visit, a guard asked his place of origin and charged one copper coin for entry 19.
• Main streets: Smooth stone roads accommodate three carts abreast, with dense rows of buildings and crowded pedestrian traffic 19.
• City maps: A general store sells maps identifying local businesses, including the Hundred Treasures Pavilion 19.

Government and Cultivation Factions

Huang Household

• The Huang Household rules the region and monopolizes its temporary spirit vein 16 18.
• The city lord, known to Wang Yu as Uncle-Master Huang, belongs to the household. He admits that he no longer makes its ultimate decisions and must follow the lineage's policy 15.
• To residents of Wang Family Village, the city lord's residence is effectively the government; the lord is the highest official they know 3.
• The household has assured access to basic cultivation resources, placing its members in a better position than ordinary rogue cultivators 25.
• Before the attack on White Cloud Abbey, Uncle-Master Huang repeatedly urged Daoist Chongyun to join the household. Chongyun refused, although Huang stated that their existing agreement remained in force 11.
• Huang Household cultivators invoked Yellowstone City's jurisdiction when attempting to search the departing Iron Arrow, but Elder Feng refused to compromise the Hundred Treasures Pavilion's rules 24.

Other Factions

• White Cloud Abbey: One of the region's few cultivation factions, founded by Daoist Chongyun. Despite its small membership, its register offers protection from the city's spirit-labor levy 4 10 15.
• Hundred Treasures Pavilion: Maintains a local shop and operates the magical ship service linking the isolated region to the outside world 16 19.
• Rogue cultivators: Some remain in the region to gather enough spiritual energy to prevent their cultivation from declining, despite its scarce resources 25.
• Dongyue's family: A reasonably wealthy local family that paid substantial silver to secure Dongyue's admission to White Cloud Abbey. Dongyue regarded even his position as a mortal attendant as a worthwhile connection to the abbey master. Chongyun stated that the family's influence in Yellowstone City would protect him after the attack, and Wang Yu later saw him safely back at the Li Family Butcher Shop 4 11 14 21.

Spiritual Conditions and Spirit Labor

Remnant Spirit Land

Spirit-Labor Levy

Ordinary residents believe the guarded fields produce special rice for the rich and powerful, supposedly capable of prolonging life. Chongyun's notes reveal that the levy actually supports the Huang Household's spirit-rice cultivation 4 16.

The impending levy prompted Wang Yu's grandfather to arrange his admission to White Cloud Abbey. Chongyun registered him as Wang Yu, with the Daoist name Autumn Leaf, and warned him to conceal his original identity to avoid conscription. Wang Kui and Wang Dagang instead planned to serve together, using the substantial pay to help fund Wang Dagang's marriage 3 4.

Green Fang Rice

• A spirit rice unique to the Huang Household, harvestable locally only when the spiritual tide arrives 26.
• Benefits Qi Refining cultivators by supporting cultivation, bodily health, blood, and vital energy 26.
• Normally withheld from outside buyers because the household lacks enough for its own needs; Yu Bintian nevertheless obtains a small quantity 26.
• Yu Bintian serves each guest a small bowl aboard the Iron Arrow, emphasizing that the rice's scarcity and expense prevent him from offering unrestricted portions 26.

Economy and Notable Locations

• Everyday trade: Wang Family Village sends buyers to the city for farming tools, salt, lamp oil, and other supplies 3.
• Iron exports: The region produces abundant iron ore. Refined iron purchased from the Huang Household fills one-third of the Iron Arrow's cargo during Yu Bintian's return journey to Tongzhou 25.
• Export processing: Yu Bintian intends to have Tongzhou blacksmiths turn the imported refined iron into thousand-fold forged iron for sale in the cultivation market 25.
• Living standards: Tongzhou has similar customs but substantially better living conditions, including more accessible rice and flour-based foods and fewer people in ragged clothing 40.
• Demon Beast awareness: According to Dongyue, knowledge of Demon Beasts is widespread among Yellowstone City's residents. Groups of hunters or skilled martial artists can deal with some of them, but an ordinary person encountering one alone faces mortal danger 6.

Hundred Treasures Pavilion Shop

• Cultivator identification: The shopkeeper uses a bronze Spirit-Revealing Lamp, which emits a faint white glow in response to Wang Yu's arrival 19.
• Limited stock: The branch offers one or two Qi Refining magical artifacts and several Parlor Trick Arts, but no manuals for proper cultivation methods. The shopkeeper remarks that cultivators rarely visit 19.
• Spell-learning objects: Its stock includes a white horn, red beast hide, and blue bone fragment bearing innate spell markings for Lightning Flash, Firefly, and Water Gathering respectively. Each costs two spirit stones during Wang Yu's visit 19.
• Condition of goods: The three spell-bearing objects were removed from Demon Beasts long before and improperly preserved. Only after completing the sale does the shopkeeper warn Wang Yu that their inscriptions will fade or become incomplete within a year 19.
• Material purchases: The shop accepts artifact-refining materials. Wang Yu sells Chongyun's iron essence casket for fourteen spirit stones, purchases the remaining spell objects, and receives an Introduction to Spells booklet 19.
• Confidentiality claim: The shopkeeper assures Wang Yu that the Pavilion values its reputation and will not disclose customer information 19.

Transportation

Hundred Treasures Pavilion Ship Service

• The Pavilion operates an enormous, specially built tower ship each year. Chongyun's notes describe it as the only safe way for ordinary people and low-level cultivators to leave the region 16.
• Mortal boats cannot navigate the Redwater River's violent currents, deep stretches, and fish-beast-infested waters 16.
• Mortals may travel aboard the ship, but only cultivators can purchase passage tickets 19.

Wang Yu purchases his ticket one month before the ship's expected arrival, paying with three low-grade Lightness Talismans valued at three spirit stones each and receiving two spirit stones in change 19.

Background and Story Role

The Huang Household settled in Yellowstone City's resource-poor region after being forced to flee its former home. Daoist Chongyun later arrived by the Pavilion's ship, seeking refuge from a powerful enemy after a dispute over a Foundation Establishment treasure 15 16 25.

That enemy eventually traced Chongyun to the region and bribed local rogue cultivators to attack him. The Huang Household sided with the enemy. After White Cloud Abbey was attacked, the city lord followed Chongyun to a hidden cavern and demanded his Clear Spirit Liquid; Chongyun killed him with Shadow-Splitting Sword Light before dying himself 12 15.

Chongyun's notes record that the Huang Household had recently begun probing him and changing its attitude. He had intended to leave the region within six months. After his death, Wang Yu buried him in a flowered meadow as requested and studied the notes to learn how to escape the region 16.

Fearing retaliation from the Huang Household, Wang Yu entered Yellowstone City in disguise. Its streets remained calm, leading him to suspect that news of the lord's death had not yet arrived. He purchased passage and supplies, then withdrew to abandoned houses outside the city, where he reached the second layer of the Yin Water Art 18 19 21.

During this stay outside the city, Wang Yu unsuccessfully attempted to open the deceased city lord's Storage Bag despite his increased dharma power. He also activated the Profound Wind Fan and, after seven days of repeated failures and spell backlash, learned to cast Firefly from the beast hide purchased at the Pavilion. Before departing, he tested the spell's ability to burn wood to ash and melt iron 22 23.

Wang Yu subsequently departed aboard the Iron Arrow. Two Huang Household cultivators tried to search the ship, but Elder Feng refused and threatened to withdraw the Pavilion's branch and ship service. They abandoned the attempt; Wang Yu remained unsure whether they had been seeking him 23 24.

At a later gathering aboard the ship, a young Huang Household passenger identified the would-be searchers as his third uncle and seventh cousin. He denied that they had been pursuing him and his wife, explaining that he had received no word from the family and did not know the purpose of their attempted search 25 26.

Much later, Wang Yu opened the Clear Spirit Gourd and discovered that it contained only ordinary water. This raised suspicions that Chongyun had deceived him about the treasure sought by Yellowstone City's lord. Wang Yu considered investigating his master's grave but postponed doing so to concentrate on the True Disciple assessment; the discovery did not resolve the earlier events 297.

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