Red Pine

Biodata

Standing and Recruitment

• National standing: Red Pine is one of Great Liang’s eight mid-tier martial academies 25.
• Disputed ranking: The academy considers itself third among its peers. The more widespread assessment places it fourth and competing for third, while some rivals place it fifth and competing for fourth 104.
• Foreign recruitment: It accepts outstanding applicants from other countries alongside Great Liang’s martial artists. At Wu Youren’s arrival, nearly one hundred students come from Great Jin, including one who has attended for eight years 12.
• Graduate recognition: Foreign countries give preferential treatment to Red Pine-trained martial artists. In Jin, recognition depends on actually graduating and obtaining a diploma, rather than merely attending 12 13 14.
• Ability Users: Several awakened martial practitioners have emerged from Red Pine, though the high-tier Great Liang and Tianjing academies have produced substantially more 74 93.
• Cost: Five hundred silver dollars would not cover even its basic fees 75.

Training and Academy Rules

Techniques and Advancement

Conduct and Security

• Entry and exit: Even ordinary students undergo identity checks. Wu Youren’s hostage status imposes additional restrictions, and Hong Yan initially grants him only a single-use departure pass 18 33.
• Student fights: Unarmed fights are treated relatively leniently if instructors do not catch them. Using weapons crosses a disciplinary boundary the academy does not tolerate 79.
• Hostage identities: The five Jin princes are instructed to present themselves as ordinary foreign martial artists and conceal their hostage status. Separate, unspecified arrangements exist for those who disclose it 12 13.
• Uneven treatment of foreigners: Some instructors disregard nationality or are foreigners themselves; others are openly hostile toward Jin students 34.
• Failures of enforcement: Wu Youren suffers repeated attacks on his vegetable garden. A patrol investigating his defensive traps instead orders him restrained, after which its members beat him 80 81.

Notable Members

Grounds, Facilities, and Defenses

Academy Grounds

• Clear Marsh Lake: Red Pine’s largest lake covers approximately 50,000–60,000 square meters. Its clear, shallow waters occupy a former marsh 97.
• Cultivation plots: Wu Youren maintains a vegetable garden and later a greenhouse on academy grounds 31 128.
• Perimeter security: During the growing regional crisis, Red Pine establishes a cordon one kilometer from the academy, with guarded booths and no outside tents permitted inside it 118.
• Trespass policy: Ranxue states that unauthorized entrants to the academy will be killed without exception 118.

Regional Facilities

• Tianjing base: Provides quarters for expedition members after their departure from the Bellflower Mountain barracks 112.
• City office: Handles academy business and also accepts paying outside lodgers. It becomes a staging point for investigations and the delivery of an infected captive 165.
• Quarantine facilities: Red Pine operates patrol and administrative posts around the affected region and supplies outsiders with food and wound medicine 75 83 144.

Military and Extraordinary Resources

• Elite Knights: Luo Xi is explicitly described as superior to ordinary Great Liang Knights of the same rank 21.
• Great Knight leadership: Hong Yan’s presence deters hostile teams and gives Red Pine considerable weight in dealings with other organizations 97 109.
• Divine Might Knight: Hao Wei identifies a Divine Might Knight associated with Red Pine, while noting that the individual is absent at the time 135.
• World-Left Weapon: Red Pine possesses a World-Left Weapon whose perception can detect objects that ordinary quarantine inspections miss. Its presence also makes Wu Youren unwilling to attempt climbing the academy wall again 135 145.
• Controlled explosives: As a mid-tier academy, Red Pine has access to a limited supply of tightly controlled grenades 84.
• Identification equipment: Academy-issued wristwatches bear a small Red Pine emblem and can identify their wearers even without academy uniforms 92 93.

History and Major Operations

Admission of the Jin Hostages

Red Pine’s representatives are delayed in collecting five hostage princes from Jin. After the princes survive a Weird attack at a factory, Hong Yan takes charge of them and brings them to the academy. She declares that inside Red Pine they are martial artists rather than hostage princes, and that their conduct must meet the standards attached to their status 9 10 12.

Their admission does not erase national hostility. Wu Youren encounters instructors and students prejudiced against Jin, while maintaining little contact with the other princes despite their shared circumstances 31 34 81.

Suotu Weird Crisis

Red Pine deploys instructors and students to investigate Weird activity and conduct rescues around Suotu. As conditions worsen, major reconnaissance missions require teams of at least five Knights. Ke Li rejects one such assignment, but the academy permits his smaller group to continue independent investigations and scattered rescues 49 50.

Cynthia, Naimuer, and Wu Youren hold an isolated patrol position despite injuries and dwindling supplies. Red Pine offers double pay for three additional days and later tells them to disregard military conscription and extortion demands, but does not resolve their supply shortage 65 67.

Hong Yan subsequently intervenes against further attempts to requisition Wu Youren. She also insists that the military’s deception of Red Pine students be distinguished from legitimate battlefield needs. The continuing Suotu fighting inflicts substantial losses on the academy 72 74 75 116.

Bellflower Mountain Expedition

Hong Yan leads a Red Pine expedition into the Bellflower Mountain Weird Domain. Its members investigate the area, gather Weird items, and become entangled in a violent dispute with Tianjing Martial Academy’s party 97 100 103.

After reviewing recordings and hearing her members’ account, Hong Yan confronts the Great Knight from Earl Shengming’s Residence. She also challenges accusations against Red Pine by stating that the opposing party nearly stole its bone glue 104 105.

Red Pine later leaves the barracks while the Hall of Extraordinary Masters searches for a missing extraordinary treasure. The Hall accuses the academy of failing to cooperate in battle and leaving early, then demands compulsory purchase of all its Weird Domain acquisitions 112 116.

Tianjing Political Pressure

Wu Youren’s proposal to exempt Knights from taxation draws New Army commander Jeff’s attention and reaches the throne. Ranxue declares that Red Pine has no institutional position on the proposal, while Hong Yan considers withdrawing to avoid involvement in the court struggle 116.

Jeff repeatedly seeks access to Wu Youren. Hong Yan refuses to let outside interests dictate the student’s participation in academy expeditions and warns against forcing Red Pine into opposition. She also negotiates with Jeff for rare anomalous objects in exchange for advice 108 116 118.

Quarantine and Territorial Disputes

The academy’s surroundings fill with camps and more than ten thousand barbarians as the crisis develops. Red Pine maintains its guarded perimeter and asserts authority over nearby territory 118 121 123.

At a quarantine site, academy personnel restrict food and medical supplies after repeated mistreatment by outsiders, with the bullying of Wu Youren serving as the immediate trigger. Their stated objection is that outsiders are consuming Red Pine’s provisions while robbing its people 144.

Parasitic Weird Research

After learning of a Parasitic Weird threat, Red Pine personnel gather supplies and cooperate with Keluoge’s City Guard Bureau. Daiqisi and Wu Youren deliver an infected captive to Red Pine’s office, where an attempt to steal credit for the capture provokes a confrontation 160 165.

The investigation develops into experiments involving infected captives and ten death-row prisoners. Great Liang Martial Academy questions Red Pine’s arrests near its grounds, and the City Guard General Bureau demands custody of infected prisoners. Hong Yan initially orders the work stopped, then allows it to continue under Keluoge’s responsibility 169.

After nine death-row prisoners die, Bingma successfully transfers a Parasitic Weird into the last prisoner. Her eyes turn blood-red again during the operation 169.

Confrontation with Taowan

Red Pine instructors support Wu Youren against Taowan despite Jin being Liang’s enemy and Taowan its ally. Kenpa explicitly frames that support as repayment for benefits Wu Youren has brought them 178.

When Prince Saina’s party arrives, Luo Xi strikes a Taowan Knight and a wider clash follows. Manna demands to know why Saina has come and warns that diplomatic immunity will not excuse causing trouble on Red Pine territory 181.

External Relationships

• Great Liang military — Cooperates with Red Pine against the Weird Race, but clashes with it over compulsory service, treatment of students, and control of regional operations 67 72 74 144.
• Tianjing Martial Academy — Higher-tier rival involved in the Bellflower Mountain dispute; its members repeatedly disparage Red Pine’s ranking 93 103 104 105.
• Great Liang Martial Academy — Questions Red Pine’s capture of an infected person near its grounds 169.
• New Army — Jeff seeks Wu Youren’s service and cooperation, while Hong Yan resists attempts to entangle the academy in political struggles 97 108 116 124.
• Hall of Extraordinary Masters — Pressures Red Pine over its Weird Domain acquisitions and investigates a missing extraordinary treasure 112 116.
• City Guard Bureau — Maintains an alumni connection through Keluoge and collaborates with Red Pine on investigations and Parasitic Weird research 113 163 169.
• Youthful Splendor Martial Academy — Exchanges information with Red Pine after the Weird Domain expedition, though both sides withhold sensitive details 116.
• Court of State Ceremonial — Clashes with Red Pine over Wu Youren’s management and allegations surrounding a missing Knight and Namuzha’s death 127 128.
• Life and Death Knot — Operates gathering places around Red Pine’s outskirts and considers transferring Wu Youren back to Jin Garden 121.
• Barbarian groups — Dispute Red Pine’s territorial authority and hunting grounds. The Teli Tribe also resents the academy for refusing its applicants 92 93 123 177.