The Verdant Snow Sect, as the name implies, is a sect originally focused on the wood-water cultivation methods. It’s original technique, the [Verdant Snow Refinement Method], was the base method and worked well with wood element energies or water element energies, but over the centuries, the Verdant Snow acquired different cultivation techniques. 

Disciples of the Verdant Snow Sect are expected to know the basics of the Verdant Snow methods, though some elders, such as Jashen, practiced a different cultivation method. Jashen’s spirit roots were of the Fire element, and so, he practiced a technique stolen by the Sect a few centuries ago, called the Solar Illumination Method. 

Cultivation techniques themselves are separated into grades, though the definitions of these grades were an area of much debate. 

Each cultivation technique is more than just a ‘technique’. It is an imprint in the spirit and the soul, a semi-tangible thing that exists in the spiritual realm of each cultivator. It’s like a ‘shadow’, that grows and gets nourished through mastery, and through mastery, transforms into instinct. This imprint affects many things, equipment, cauldrons, and in later stages, this ‘shadow’ or ‘soul imprint’ could even ‘grow’ its own spiritual weapon. 

Cultivation methods are thoughts made real in the spiritual realm, and from the reality of the spiritual realm, it influences the reality of the physical world. 

A cultivator’s comprehension, thus, translates into power. 

A cultivator sharing his comprehension, makes those around him stronger. But man, even as he ascends on the steps of immortality, retains their selfish origins. The selfish nature of cultivators to hoard power, to secure one’s security, to protect one’s descendants, means more words are unsaid. 

The push and pull between the strength of the whole, and the strength of the individual, sits at the heart of a sect’s existence. Each cultivator stands on the shoulders of those before him, and yet, each cultivator is just as eager to step away, cutting off the path for those who come after. Elders are ‘compelled’ to share their knowledge, and to incentivize this, resources are granted to the elders, such that they could maintain the gap.

Resources is the lubrication that facilitates a sect’s operations.

For this reason, Sects like the Verdant Snow Sect, the Yellow Cloud, and the Blood Blade, all strive to control more resources. Resources are money for cultivators, they can be traded, even if not used. 

Lakeshore is just one of the many thousands of battlefields. 

Since they arrived, Tundra and Celestia stalked Elder Jashen and Agnia. They knew that the time to strike was soon. 

 

***

The trigger happened quite like how Tundra expected, on a busy morning, during the busiest hour of the morning market. 

This wasn’t the first altercation between the two sides of this conflict. In the past few days, two smaller attacks occurred. During the last two attacks, nothing happened other than noisy scufflings and trading of a few blows. 

Tundra believed this was an intentional deflection to lull Agnia into a sense of complacency. That this was more of the same thing.

So the morning started quite the same as before, but Tundra felt the shifting of the formations. It was going to be today. 

A servant ran to the Branch office. “Lady Agnia, the young master of the Blackshore family is under attack by the Amberblade family’s young master! He’s backed by the Yellow Cloud’s Elder!”

Agnia groaned, and got her equipment. She picked up the pill, just in case. “Again?” 

Jashen nodded, “Let’s go.”

Tundra and Celestia were nearby, and Tundra himself, sensitive to the energies of the formation. “It’s starting, get ready.”

Celestia looked around, and she gripped her sword. “Where?”

Tundra closed his eyes, and extended his senses outward. The formation needs to be activated, and he needs to pinpoint who and where that person is. “Market. Let’s go.”

Agnia and Jashen knew today was the day, once they felt Tundra’s brief touch on their soul, a way of informing them that it was going to happen. They checked their own equipment, and mentally prepared themselves for a fight.

“Caden Blackshore! Your family insulted my family, don’t think I’ve forgotten!” The man from the Amberblade family, Cyrus Amberblade, shouted. They were in an opening in the center of Lakeshore’s morning market, and the mortals quickly scurried away. There was an elder of the Yellow Cloud next to him, a person in the early fifth realm. 

Caden sneered. “Oh? The son of the man that was beaten black and blue dares to challenge me? Did we not just beat you yesterday?”

“Today is different.” Cyrus said.

Caden knew what Cyrus meant, as his eyes landed on the elder. “Aren’t you just relying on the old man next to you? Greetings, Elder.”

The elder sneered. “This foolish one dares to be arrogant in front of his elders!”

“It is not arrogance, elder.” Caden countered. “Merely confidence.”

Tundra was nearby, and frowned that Caden was such an obnoxious brat. If he remembered correctly, his father wasn’t much better. They were both arrogant bastards, but they were his allies. They presented an opportunity, even if they were less than pleasant people to be with. He hoped his own children would be better.

Caden was in the lower third realm, just like Cyrus. Both were really nothing much, in the larger scheme of things. Both family’s patriarchs were peak 4th realms. 

Cyrus laughed. “You backed the wrong horse, Caden. Today, I will beat you up.”

Caden chuckled, faking bravado. “Come. Show me what you’ve got.”

“Really? Since your servant already ran to ask for help, I might as well wait for her to arrive.” Cyrus countered. “So that I can beat the two of you up together.”

Caden frowned. “That’s no way to talk to a disciple of the Verdant Snow Sect!”

Just then, Agnia arrived. “Young Master, what’s happening here?” 

Jashen waltzed in next to him, and the Yellow Cloud’s elder smiled, as if pleased to see Jashen’s presence. “Oh, to think that today, we’d have the famous Elder Jashen of the Verdant Snow Sect. We must truly have caught a big fish.”

Jashen knew what he insinuated, and waited. “Oh really? It is indeed a momentous occasion for the Elder of the Yellow Cloud to grace us with his presence. Perhaps he is here to speak for the Amberblade family?” 

“Indeed.” The Yellow Cloud Elder smiled. 

Tundra got ready, he felt the pricking on his skin as the energies of the formation began to move. 

The land of the Lakeshore Barrens was naturally rich in wood energy, and for someone like Celestia with wood-element spirit roots, the power of her natural abilities was amplified. There was a reason why cultivators set up homes in places with suitable elements, because nature enhances their power, and gives them a hand. 

A fire-element cultivator fighting in a volcano could be many times more powerful than a fire element in a normal environment. The richness of the natural energy makes each attack more powerful, their bodies denser, and the world itself bends to the will of the matching element cultivator, even if momentarily. 

Here, in the windy, forested lands of Lakeshore, she felt the land itself feed her, as if the land itself spoke to her. She too, aided by the land’s guidance, sensed the subtle movements of the formation’s energies. 

Meanwhile, in the market square, Jashen stared at the elder of the Yellow Cloud. A strange mist began to emerge around them.

“Oh. Today will be the day I take down the famous Elder Jashen.” The Yellow Cloud Elder said. At that moment, the energies of the Divine Lightning Purgatory began to gather, and dark storm clouds emerged overhead. What was a sunny morning transformed into a dark, stormy morning. “Since you’ve done the honor of coming all the way, we won’t let you leave!” 

Jashen laughed. “Brave words for someone who’s weaker than me!”

The formation stirred into action, as lightning gathered overhead. Bolts of lightning blasted between the storm clouds, as if gathering strength. 

Both Jashen and Agnia looked at each other, and quickly ate their lightning resistance pills.

The mist wasn’t that thick. Just a gentle coating of white, as it began to rain. 

The Elder of the Yellow Cloud didn’t know what pill they ate, but he rushed ahead, his weapon, a saber, sparked with flames. “Die!”

Jashen shrugged, as his own glaive burned with fire. Steam emerged from the tips of his enchanted glaive, as the raindrops splattered on the hot steel. “Since the Yellow Cloud Sect dares to challenge us, it would be impolite for us to refuse. Come, show me the weight behind your fire arts!”

The saber met the glaive in flashes of light and fire, though mortals watching from the gaps of their windows would find it hard to see anything other than the streaks of flames in the mist and steam from their fiery blades.

The two young masters entered into battle, while Agnia was then quickly assaulted by some of the other disciples of the Yellow Cloud and Blood Blade Sect.

The storm loomed overhead, its energies charging up. 

Tundra’s senses continued to scan the surroundings, as he searched for the formation master. They should not be too far, since the formation master needs to be present to control the formation’s targets. 

He searched the city, the markets and then spotted a woman that was likely the formation master. He focused, and once he confirmed it, he moved quickly.

The culprit was a woman in an unassuming gray civilian outfit, but the energy from her body was unmistakable. 

Tundra landed right in front of her, and without a shadow of doubt, his hand was on her shoulder. 

His fingers stabbed her meridians, each stab with his fingers inserted a paralyzing bolt of energy that temporarily disabled that meridian. It was easy for a master like him to seal one’s meridians, and doing so, she froze.  

“-how?!” The woman couldn’t believe it. She was so focused on the battle that she didn’t even feel Tundra arrive in front of her.

Tundra with a mask that covered his face, answered. “Nothing you need to know.”

With her meridians sealed, the formation would be out of control and strike at random. Tundra immediately contacted Celestia.

“Any other movement?”

“There seems to be a few other accomplices from the Blood Blade and the Yellow Cloud Sect, but they are all 2nd or 3rd realm. I’ll deal with them.” 

“Great. I’ve got the formation master, but I can’t disable the formation.” Tundra was familiar with the formation, but breaking formations required items he didn’t have. Formations, once created, were usually independent of their makers, though their makers usually set such that there is some type of control or bypass. 

This mechanism is usually unique to each formation master.  

***

The formation above them began to strike at random, much to the surprise of the Elder of the Yellow Cloud Sect. 

The Yellow Cloud Elder’s saber met the glaive of Elder Jashen in an explosive clash of fire-elements, and for a moment, they fought equally. But that was only because Elder Jashen wasn’t going at full strength. He held back, just to observe the situation. Not far away, Core Disciple Agnia faced off against three other disciples of the Yellow Cloud and Blood Blade Sect that emerged out of their hidden areas. They were all peak 3rd realms, but against Agnia who was in the middle 4th realm, all they could do was keep her busy. 

Meanwhile, the two young masters of the Blackshore and Amberblade Sect fought, both in the 3rd realms, before a random lightning bolt blasted them apart. 

“What is that woman doing!” The Yellow Cloud’s Elder complained as he traded blows with Jashen. “What’s taking them so long!”

“Pay attention, Elder.” Jashen’s hot glaive narrowly missed the Yellow Cloud Elder’s head. The rain poured. “Were you expecting something to happen, beyond this uncontrollable formation?”

The Yellow Cloud elder didn’t say a word, as he counterattacked. The two elders traded more blows as their flaming weapons glowed amidst the steam and the mist.  

The dark skies rumbled, as the formations’ energies concentrated in the skies above. Bolts of lightning and flashes of light could be seen, as all the mortals fled as far as they could. 

Tundra felt the gathering energy. Then, a huge blast of lightning crashed on the ground below. The lightning, uncontrolled, smashed into the center of the mortal market. Agnia retreated, but the lightning was too close.

Yet, despite being far away, the lightning itself arced across the skies and zapped Agnia. 

The formation master must have pre-targeted Agnia’s energy signature.

“Your disciple’s done for!” The Yellow Cloud elder taunted Jashen.

Jashen didn’t react, instead, his glaive went for the kill. He missed the Elder’s head, who dodged awkwardly, but instead, he managed to chop off one of his arms. 

The Yellow Cloud Elder yelled. For a fifth realm elder, regenerating arms wasn’t impossible, but would consume a lot of resources. “YOU DARE!”

Jashen laughed. “Of course we dare. You threaten to kill us, we are merely returning the favor.” 

“If you kill me-”

“That’s why I won’t.” Jashen laughed as his mid 5th realm aura spread outwards. Jashen landed right in front of the Amberblade’s Heir, and in a single strike, chopped off the young man’s hands. 

The man screamed in pain. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH~ SAVE ME ELDER~”

But Jashen knew the elder wouldn’t. He was in pain himself. 

“The Yellow Cloud Sect will remember this!” The Elder said.

“I know. We want them to remember. In fact-” 

Jashen appeared right next to the Elder, and pierced him with a needle. 

“Here, the Silent Eternity Toxin.”

The Elder’s eyes widened in horror. “-what~ No~”

In the world of cultivation, nothing was truly incurable. For everything else, it is often a question of methods and resources. Tundra even heard of occult practices by a beast sect that ‘created’ cultivators, through transplanting of beast cores into human mortals. 

“I didn’t want to do this.” Jashen smiled, “But the sect master believes such underhanded plots should be countered with underhanded plots of our own.”

The elder’s eyes widened, as the poison quickly spread through the elder’s body. He would lose his ability to cultivate over the next five years, and it would take about a hundred years before the poison begins to fade. 

“I would have preferred to kill you.” Jashen laughed. “But then again, sometimes, leaving you alive is a message of our own.”

The elder choked. “You- you will pay for this.”

Jashen countered. “On the other hand, I believe the Yellow Cloud and Blood Blade Sect have long made themselves mortal enemies of our Verdant Snow. Our blood is already bad.”

At that point, the mist, dust and residual energies of the formation’s huge energy blast faded, to reveal an injured Agnia. The sudden blast of lightning was intense, but thankfully, the powers of the pill nullified most of the damage. She was bleeding, charred, but not dead. 

Jashen was naturally pleased. He laughed. “Oh, it seems you couldn’t even kill our disciple with that blast!”

“How? Impossible! That formation blast should be strong enough for-”

At that point, Tundra emerged with his hostage. The formation expert was restrained by one of Tundra’s artifacts. Tundra, still in a mask, spoke cryptically. “Tell the Blood Blade Sect that we have their formation master. If their patriarch wants her back, remember to pay a suitable price.”

The elder turned ugly. “Release her!”

Tundra didn’t know where the elder found courage. Jashen’s aura flared, and shouted back. “Why? We’ve dared to help the Blackshore family take this city, do you think we do so without the determination to see it through?”

The elder frowned at Jashen’s retort, but a fifth realm elder was not so easily killed. Even the stump on his bleeding, severed arm began to heal.

 Tundra smirked and suggested. “Maybe, the elder as a hostage sounds like a good idea?”

It was a bluff. The Verdant Snow Sect didn’t have a prison strong enough to restrain a fifth realm. Their strongest prison, the Verdant Storage Cell, could only fit one person, and could only hold one individual in the fourth realm. It was for that reason Tundra decided the formation master was a good hostage. At least, they’d get some decent rewards for it. 

Jashen grinned. “Oh. That does sound tempting!”

The Elder realized the odds didn’t look good. Not with Jashen still mostly unharmed, while their side took losses. 

At that point, a few more of their operatives were tossed out of hiding, and Celestia emerged, also in a mask. “I’ve flushed out a few more of their folks. Had to kill some of them, though.”

The world of cultivation is a world of blood and slaughter. Power is the only real law. Very few got to the higher realms without ever killing anyone, and fewer still, without killing spirit beasts. Even if one is not eager to kill, there are others who would.

The Yellow Cloud Elder’s face turned ugly. “You?!”

Jashen smiled. “I what? Take your men and scram!” Jashen then turned to the young master of the Amberblade Family, who looked just slightly battered. “And you, Young master, I suggest you return home, nurse your injuries, learn to behave under new leadership.”

The young master held his bleeding arm, and frowned. “You’re bullying the weak.”

Tundra found that hilarious. They were just trying to do the same thing. Yet, at the same time, the young master seemed to be made of sterner stuff. He somehow wondered what sort of upbringing the young Cyrus Amberblade had. 

Jashen, the well practiced elder, merely grinned. “So what if we are? Go home, unless you want to lose your life today.”

He did. 

The Amberblade family still controlled many of the businesses and resources in the Lakeshore Barrens, and it was not in their interest to destroy the Amberblade family. Not yet anyway. Power struggles are rarely bloodless, but it is always a means to exercise control and enforce one’s rule. Tundra would crush them slowly, and weaken them over time. 

“I’ll take the hostage back to the Verdant Snow Sect.” Jashen answered. It wouldn’t be a problem for a fifth realm elder to restrain a 4th realm formation master, especially one already pacified with Tundra’s restraining chains.

***

Agnia, Celestia and Tundra were now in the branch office of the Verdant Snow Sect. It really was a bare place, and Tundra felt the place needed more furnishing, if it is to be a branch office of the Verdant Snow.

“Ah, it is our honor that the Sect Master himself graced us with his presence.” The old man of the Blackshore family was flanked by the young master, Caden, and two younger, beautiful daughters, dressed in surprisingly revealing robes. The patriarch was only in the 4th realm, so in Tundra’s presence, he was as meek as a lamb.

Caden too had his head on the floor. They came with gifts. Bribes, essentially.

Tundra heard bad things about both these men. They were lecherous, greedy folk, but sadly, the heavens did not discriminate against the terrible, and gave them decent cultivation talent. Peak 4th realm meant the Blackshore patriarch was, on paper, Patriarch Mistburn’s equal. At least before his breakthrough.

“We are thankful for the Sect Master’s assistance and generosity.”

There really was no beating around the bush. “It was fit and proper to show them who’s the stronger one. Now that is settled, Patriarch Blackshore, I hope you know what to do.”

The patriarch nodded. “Certainly, certainly. We will ensure that the supply of the Driedbark Lizards reach the Verdant Snow Sect on time, and of a suitable amount.”

For now, he’d work with them, but in his mind, Tundra wanted to usurp their position and build up the branch office such that it is a powerhouse in the city of Lakeshore, and relegate the two warring families into minor features. Then, he could break the alliance with these people.

For now, he’ll string them along.

“Is there anything else?”

The patriarch tried to talk about how great he is, and tried to polish his shoe. Tundra had seen this type many times, and the reaction from his gut was the same. Visceral disgust. It was just unfortunate that the other party wasn’t amenable to an alliance, and competing sects couldn’t be friends. 

Such is politics, and Tundra merely nodded. Just allies-of-convenience. “It was a pleasure having you and your family come visit us, Patriarch Blackshore, but as you can see, we had a rough day, preparing for their ambush. We could use some rest, if there’s nothing else.”

The patriarch got the message. “Certainly.”

***

The visitors returned to the Blackshore family home, but not before a debrief.

“The Sect Master didn’t even look at us.” The two daughters of Patriarch Blackshore answered after the meeting. Their dresses were exceptionally revealing, far more than what they would normally wear. 

The Patriarch cursed. “I heard stories of how the Sect Master of the Verdant Snow is known to take many wives, and thought he was looking for beautiful women to add to his harem of wives. But if he didn’t glance at you two, then maybe his tastes are more esoteric. In that case, we’d need to target the children. Caden, leave the matters in Lakeshore to your father. I want you to take your sisters and go to Verdant Leaf Town and get to know the children of the Sect Master. We need to turn this alliance into something unbreakable, before the Sect Master gets rid of us.”

“Why would they get rid of us?” Caden asked, unaware of his father’s thoughts. 

“Does it look like they need us?” Patriarch Blackshore countered. “Go now.”

“Can’t I just seduce the disciple Agnia? She’s quite a beautiful lady, and I would be more than happy to take her as a wife.” Caden offered. 

“A disciple is a disciple. Family is family.” Patriarch countered. “If you don’t understand, think about it on the way to Verdant Leaf Town.”

Caden gulped. “Yes, father.”

Father turned to the two daughters. “Girls, for the sake of our family, I need you to find a suitable member of the Fox family, and make yourself their wives.”

The two daughters bowed, despite their own reservations, and answered. “As you command, father.”