The Chess and Sword Music House had a long lineage, its founding dating back to the Wei and Jin Dynasties, but it had flourished during the Tang Dynasty.
During the Tang Dynasty, the "Music Saint" Li Guinian had succeeded as its master. With so many cultured lovers of poetry and song among its members, it had attracted the "Sword Paragon" Pei Min, the "Calligraphy Paragon" Zhang Xu, and the "Poetry Paragon" Li Bai to join as guest elders.
With the Three Tang Perfections gathered under one roof, the Chess and Sword Music House had become renowned throughout the land!
Together with its master Li Guinian's mastery of music, these four peerless talents had drawn scholars and poets from across the land to train there, bringing it immense fame.
It was also then that the Chess and Sword Music House had established its structure of one house and three surnames. The Li family of the Music Saint's lineage, the Pei Family of the Sword Saint's lineage, and the Zhang family of the Calligraphy Saint's lineage had taken turns holding the position of master.
At the time, the Chess and Sword Music House's prestige had even surpassed Shaolin's.
But decline following the height of prosperity was an irrefutable truth.
Perhaps it was precisely because their predecessors had been so astonishingly gifted, raising the Chess and Sword Music House to an unprecedented peak, that their successors had seemed so mediocre.
Over the following centuries, each generation had fallen short of the last.
By now, all three families of the Chess and Sword Music House lacked capable successors. Their predecessors' supreme arts sat neglected, with few able to comprehend them. In raw strength, they already ranked near the bottom of the Nine Sects, only slightly above Medicine King Valley, yet without Medicine King Valley's