Liu Family

Biodata

Background

The Liu Family has a longstanding ambition to absorb the Tang Family, a goal known among Cloud City’s prominent lineages. Its younger members are initially warned not to provoke Tang Yan first, since retaliation from Tang Ling could turn a minor confrontation into a dangerous feud 6.

Unlike the Tang Family, which has only one direct-line descendant in its younger generation, the Liu Family has six or seven young men in the direct line, several of whom show promise. Its future therefore does not depend on the conduct of its wastrel third young master, Liu Yuan 6 31.

Leadership and Members

Military Strength and Methods

Overlord Spear Technique

• The Liu Family’s signature martial technique, used by Liu Xing when he opens his match against Tang Yan 48.
• Liu Zhi also fights with a long spear, although his technique is not named in the supplied account 49.

Martial Retainers

The force secretly stationed within the Four Seas Gang provides a documented example of the family’s military resources, not a count of its entire fighting strength 41.

Political Tactics

• Provoked confrontations: Members try to make Tang Yan strike first, allowing them to retaliate while avoiding responsibility for starting the dispute 6.
• Competition as cover: The elders plan to use martial-contest injuries as an opportunity to cripple or kill Tang Yan 23 46.
• Reputation attacks: Liu Wuhui proposes spreading claims that the Tang Family has no worthy successor if it refuses to attend the Mid-Autumn Gathering 42.
• Proxy attacks: The family uses the Four Seas Gang to attack a Tang-affiliated lineage, forcing the Tang Family to choose between retaliation and damage to its credibility 40 41.

History

Early Clashes with Tang Yan

Liu Zhi destroys the original Tang Yan’s dantian and grievously beats him after encountering his attempted assault on Lin Dongxue. The weakened young master dies from the beating, and the alchemist Tang Yan subsequently inhabits his body 1.

Liu Yuan later attempts to humiliate Tang Yan through a street-fight wager. Tang Yan distracts him with a folding fan falsely presented as a magical treasure, beats him unconscious, and takes the agreed two thousand taels. The public defeat damages both Liu Yuan’s reputation and the family’s prestige 6 7.

Seeking revenge, Liu Yuan returns with Liu Quan and two guards. Tang Yan severely injures Liu Quan’s dantian while revealing his recovered cultivation. Tang Ling intervenes and warns the Liu Family against harming his grandson again 15 16.

Plotting Against a Recovered Heir

The elders are alarmed by Tang Yan’s restored dantian and Origin Tier Eighth Grade strength. Liu Jing speculates that a secret art may have made the dantian appear damaged; the family does not know how Tang Yan actually recovered. Liu Wuhui decides to eliminate him before he becomes a greater threat, and the elders plan to provoke him into challenging Liu Zhi at the Mid-Autumn Gathering 23.

Madam Lin’s Birthday Banquet

The Liu Family joins the Wu and Qin families in criticizing Tang Ling after he protects Tang Yan during a confrontation with the Qian brothers. Ge Ming’s intervention forces Liu Wuhui to let the dispute drop rather than oppose the Wonderful Elixir Workshop 32 33.

Tang Yan then publicly mocks the Liu Family for failing to defend its Qian Family dependents. His remarks undermine confidence in the family’s protection among its subordinate lineages 33 35.

Failure of the Four Seas Gang Ambush

The Four Seas Gang attacks shops belonging to a separate Liu lineage allied with the Tang Family. Liu Jing secretly supports the gang with Liu Family fighters, expecting the Tang Family’s retaliation to expose it to a devastating counterattack 40 41.

Instead, the Tang Family deploys more than 130 Yellow Tier experts. Its guards overwhelm the defenders, and Liu Jing flees after signaling his men to escape. Abandoned by his ally, gang leader Chen Dao curses the Liu Family before taking his own life 41 42.

The defeat forces Liu Wuhui to reconsider killing Tang Yan outright: an all-out Tang Family response would now be costly. He instead favors severe injury while leaving Tang Yan alive, though his later instructions again permit an “accidental” killing 42 46.

Mid-Autumn Gathering

Liu Hailian and Liu Zhi reach the final literary round, but Tang Yan wins with “Man’s Way.” The family then shifts its efforts to the martial competition 45 46.

Liu He wagers three Third-Tier Beast Cores on Liu Xing defeating Tang Yan and privately orders Liu Xing not to allow a concession. Tang Yan wins, seriously injures Liu Xing’s dantian, and demands the wagered cores. He then reveals Yellow Tier Sixth Grade strength and challenges Liu Changyu 47 48.

Liu Zhi intervenes, offering to concede if Tang Yan survives twenty moves. Tang Yan withstands his Yellow Tier Ninth Grade full-power strike and meets that condition. Lin Xiao’s warning prevents Liu Zhi from acting on his murderous intent afterward, leaving the family’s attempt to disgrace the Tang Family unsuccessful 48 49 50.

Assets and Items

• Family residence and main hall — Headquarters where the senior members hold strategic meetings 23 42.
• Two Deep-Sea Luminous Pearls — Fist-sized treasures from the family collection, presented to Madam Lin for her birthday. They illuminate a room at night and emit an aura that soothes the mind and spirit 33.
• Third-Tier Beast Cores — Three are pledged in Liu He’s wager over Liu Xing’s match; Tang Yan demands their delivery after winning 47 48.

Relationships

• Tang Family — Principal rival and intended target for absorption; their conflict encompasses public humiliation, assassination plots, and proxy warfare 6 23 41.
• Qian Family — Longstanding subordinate lineage. The Liu Family’s failure to defend the Qian brothers at the birthday banquet strains confidence in that relationship 32 33.
• Four Seas Gang — Covert military partner used against the Tang Family; the alliance collapses when Liu Jing abandons the gang during its defeat 41 42.
• Wu and Qin families — Join the Liu Family in opposing Tang Ling at the banquet. Liu Wuhui later proposes cooperating with other families to destroy the Tang Family 32 42.
• Wonderful Elixir Workshop — A power the Liu Family cannot afford to confront. Its support for the Tang Family constrains Liu Wuhui, and Wu Xuan declines Liu Zhi’s invitation to sit with his family 33 43.
• City Lord’s Residence — Limits the feud through public authority and competition rules; Lin Xiao directly deters Liu Zhi from attacking Tang Yan after their twenty-move exchange 47 49.

Trivia

• Two distinct Liu families appear in the conflict: the great lineage covered here and a northern-city Liu lineage affiliated with the Tang Family. The latter is the victim of the Four Seas Gang attack, not the organization directing it 40 41.