Reach the Summit

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Power Progression

These milestones track the faction’s documented fighting strength and resources, rather than assigning it an unsupported organizational rank.

History

Foundation and Academy Expansion

Tang Yan founded Reach the Summit at Azure Dragon Academy. Its first auction, presented by Du Shu, attracted attention with extraordinary pill claims but also immediate skepticism. The Soul-Tempering Pill became the opening test of its credibility, with Elder Zhen asking Elder Huo to inspect it 183.

Before opening its shop, the faction advertised a membership system, pill reservations, ingredient purchases, and recruitment of Alchemy Masters. It then secured the Courtyard One Trading Base rather than the street stall its rivals expected. The six-room premises carried an annual rent of at least three million Star Value 203 222.

The Four Directions Cauldron, led by Qin Yue’er, was the first group it absorbed. By the time Tang Yan reviewed its recruits, Du Shu could introduce twenty newly recruited second-tier Alchemy Masters 226 250.

Academy Rivalries and the Chu Family

Reach the Summit’s pills drew customers away from established factions, particularly the Precious Pill Pavilion and Sacred Pill Alliance. Its sale of the Precious Pill Pavilion’s signature pills prompted accusations of formula theft; Du Shu maintained that Reach the Summit already possessed those formulas 250 251.

The conflict with the Chu Family became a defining test of its loyalty. Following Lin Dongxue’s injuries, the faction converted more than half its assets into silver and offered valuable pills for information about her earlier contacts. Its willingness to commit so much to one member attracted admiration and prospective recruits 265 266.

Tang Yan negotiated Yun Family support through discounted pills and priority purchasing rights. After the Chu Family’s destruction, Reach the Summit gained prestige, martial recruits, and talented alchemists. Du Shu and Fang Xuan began establishing a shop branch in Ming City 282 293.

Success did not eliminate its vulnerabilities. During Tang Yan’s pill refining and the absence of many martial members, Ye Qiong led the Peak Society against the academy shop. Yang Jiayi was injured, more than twenty defenders were defeated, and the attackers turned to the pills in its counters 303.

Imperial City and Southern Wilderness

Reach the Summit entered the Imperial City pill market with Imperial Family backing. Imperial Guards carried advertising banners through the city, lending credibility to its claims and disrupting the Heavenly Pill Palace’s plans to suppress it. Its membership system subsequently encouraged customers to accumulate points for access to Peerless Divine Pills 340 347.

Du Shu also negotiated a production agreement with the Wonderful Elixir Workshop. The workshop would refine requested pills using Reach the Summit’s formulas for a twenty-percent share, while Du Shu promised access to markets across the Five Kingdoms 359.

In Southern Wilderness City, Tang Yan moved the faction away from the Xiao Lineage to avoid involving its hosts in the conflict with Mingyou Valley. Reach the Summit established its own outskirts base and allied with the Gao Family. Their joint campaign ultimately destroyed Mingyou Valley 401 424 459 582.

Northern Spirit Expansion

Reach the Summit sheltered the Spirit Shaman Clan under the public identity of herb farmers. Clan members contributed through missions, while its King Rank martial artists offered military assistance 476 598.

When the Desolate Clan crippled and imprisoned Yang Jiayi and Yu Juechen, Fang Xuan’s ransom attempt failed despite payment. Tang Yan went to Heaven-Covering Valley; later accounts linked his intervention to the deaths of the clan’s former leader and several senior elders 477 478 571.

Windfire Ridge’s attempt to steal pill formulas led to another major expansion. Its infiltrator Tao Yuchan obtained the Spirit Transformation Pill formula and murdered founding alchemist Qiu Feng. Tang Yan sought allied assistance, forced Windfire Ridge to submit, and incorporated its alchemists and resources 533 537 540 541 547.

Conflict with Medicine Valley

Reach the Summit’s training-and-partnership model increasingly threatened Medicine Valley’s control of the pill market. Medicine Valley considered searches, proxy attacks, ingredient restrictions, assassinations, and competing recruitment efforts. Reach the Summit responded with intelligence gathering, supply protection, reputation campaigns, and a Life-and-Death Alliance with powerful partners 582 586 587 594.

After Medicine Valley discovered the sheltered Spirit Shaman Clan, Tang Yan prepared an evacuation and summoned allies to buy time. Medicine Valley entered the deserted base but was temporarily trapped when the Mountain-Guarding Formation reactivated. Although Reach the Summit’s mountain gate was destroyed and its members withdrew, public discussion treated its resistance as an embarrassment for Medicine Valley 599 601 604 607.

Tang Yan later defeated Medicine Valley’s leadership and ordered its permanent incorporation. Most managers accepted the merger; eighteen chose to leave. Fang Xuan departed to establish a base there as Reach the Summit prepared to expand inland 646 647.

After Tang Yan’s Reported Death

Reach the Summit mourned Tang Yan following news of his sacrifice, but the organization endured. Fang Xuan reminded Lin Dongxue of her responsibilities as a core member, reinforcing her determination to preserve what Tang Yan had built 837 849.

Du Shu later revealed that he, Fang Xuan, and Lin Dongxue were all Reach the Summit members. He credited Fang Xuan with strategies behind the Demon Sect’s cooperation with the Famous Sects and the promotion of the Heavenly Communicator among the Other Races 861.

Organization and Membership

Leadership and Personnel

Recruitment and Advancement

• Service commitment: Joining normally requires at least five years of service, a condition explicitly restated to recruits after the Chu Family campaign 250 293.
• Individual contracts: Su Ruyan joins under a separate agreement promising advancement to third-grade King Rank within two years, with compensation terms if Reach the Summit fails 451.
• Alchemy fundamentals: Du Shu tells prospective recruit Jing Wuhen that joining requires practicing alchemy fundamentals fifty thousand times 226.
• Advertised benefits: Alchemists are promised ingredients, individual guidance, and a Teng Cauldron within a month. Those who find that the faction cannot improve their skills may leave and receive compensation 204.
• Contribution-based development: Du Shu proposes awarding points for refined pills and exchanging those points for higher-level formulas. By the Medicine Valley merger, contribution points determine access to different training levels 227 647.
• Martial development: Tang Yan supplies cultivation and healing pills alongside demanding physical training and combat practice 233 261 262.

Identity and Principles

• Mutual protection: Tang Yan pledges that the faction will defend its members’ dignity and shared honor, even against stronger opponents 253.
• Complementary roles: Alchemists provide resources; martial artists protect the organization and its independence 233.
• Ambition beyond the academy: Tang Yan rejects academy factions as the limit of Reach the Summit’s aspirations and declares that its goals extend beyond its home kingdom 233 293.
• Uniforms: Fang Xuan commissions several clothing styles bearing “Reach the Summit” on a corner. Yang Li describes wearing the name as a source of pride 232.

Commerce and Alchemy

Pill Shop

• Quality guarantee: Du Shu publicly guarantees that every pill sold is at least high grade 342.
• Membership points: Customers accumulate points to qualify for Peerless Divine Pill purchases; the system encourages repeat business 203 347 521.
• Reservations and procurement: Early shop announcements include pill reservations and medicinal-ingredient purchases 203.
• Independent growth: Du Shu proposes reinvesting profits in formulas and martial skills so that the faction does not depend entirely on Tang Yan’s personal support 227.
• Expansion strategy: Tang Yan plans shops near allied organizations while using outside producers to relieve pressure on Reach the Summit’s own alchemists 492.

Pill Dao Academy

The academy combines alchemy instruction with a supplier-partnership system 521 526.

• Training terms: Instruction is free, but participating organizations supply their own ingredients 521.
• Curriculum: Early lessons emphasize basic techniques, ingredient properties, and combining refining methods 525 528.
• Supplier agreement: Partners may sell upper-grade ordinary pills to Reach the Summit at eighty percent of the regular price, with no quantity limit stated in Du Shu’s offer 521.
• Market division: Reach the Summit offers ordinary-pill production opportunities to local powers while concentrating its own efforts on expansion and distinctive products 492 526.
• Recruitment scale: Du Shu expects several dozen sects and more than five thousand participants for the initial training initiative 521.
• Results: Medicine Valley’s investigation finds that nearly all organizations attending the earlier session have become suppliers 582.
• Merger policy: Entire sects may apply to join, but Tang Yan cautions against recruitment practices that split outside organizations and damage Reach the Summit’s reputation 572 575.

Other Ventures

• Good Fortune Machines: Du Shu develops pill-drawing machines following Tang Yan’s blind-box suggestion. The Artifact Pavilion grants Reach the Summit exclusive manufacture of this machine type for ten years 451 492.
• Formation sales: Tang Yan arranges for the Star-Gazing Pavilion to sell Mountain-Guarding Formations for a twenty-percent profit share. The quoted price is two hundred Ninth Tier spirit herbs or equivalent materials 614.

Bases and Facilities

External Relationships

• Azure Dragon Academy — Birthplace and early commercial base. Tang Yan publicly promises that Reach the Summit will defend the academy against outside aggression 222 284.
• Yun Family — Ally against the Chu Family; receives a ten-percent pill discount and priority purchasing rights 282.
• Imperial Family — Supports the Imperial City shop through its storefront and Imperial Guard advertising 340.
• Wonderful Elixir Workshop — Contract production partner using Reach the Summit’s formulas for a twenty-percent share 359.
• Gao Family — Pill purchaser and military ally in Southern Wilderness City, including the campaign against Mingyou Valley 401 424 459.
• Artifact Pavilion — Staunch ally that provides military assistance, supports the Good Fortune Machine venture, and intervenes in the Desolate Clan dispute 478 492 537.
• Spirit Shaman Clan — Sheltered ally whose members contribute through missions and military service 476 598 599.
• Star-Gazing Pavilion, Fengyun Clan, Overlord Spear Sect, Lan Family, and Su Family — Allied powers that send personnel when Reach the Summit faces Medicine Valley’s threatened attack 601.
• Windfire Ridge — Former enemy absorbed after formula theft and Qiu Feng’s murder 537 540 547.
• Medicine Valley — Principal Northern Spirit pill-market rival; ultimately incorporated permanently 582 646 647.

Notable Quotes

“Reach the Summit will always stand behind you.” — Tang Yan 253

“As long as Reach the Summit endures, we will never compromise!” — Assembled members supporting Zi Yun 298