Survival of the fittest.
Clans are annihilated with their members slaughtered over the smallest transgression.
This is the fate of the Wu Clan of Heitie City in Tieling County.
While not a large clan, they were naturally strong warriors and quickly established themselves with a powerful Meridian Opening Realm patriarch.
Over the years they acquired a reputation as great swordsmen who feared nothing. Those that repaid kindness 10 fold and enmity 100 fold.
In this world, prosperity invites jealousy.
The Wu Clan was lucky enough to find a small spirit stone mine which could have brought their clan into a whole new era. Unfortunately, a lower ranking member of the clan let the information slip while drunk at a brothel.
This information caused the Wu Clan to be erased overnight. The powerful clans of Song, Ji, and Lin all allied together to destroy the Wu Clan. Taking the mine for themselves.
The clan wasn't established for more than 15 years before they were ruthlessly eradicated. Their cultivators were slaughtered and their mortal clan members were enslaved.
Only one survivor remained...
Wu Tianmo.
After returning from his journey he found his clan destroyed and his family manor inhabited by the victor.
It was then that he swore a silent oath, one day he would return and the blood of his enemies would flood the city of Heitie City.
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1 Year Later
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What he thought would be an easy beginning turned out to be quite difficult. Tianmo had always been treated with respect in Heitie City due to his clan's status. Yet now people treated him just like everyone else, another rogue cultivator in a small county.
He found that the imagined status he once held was nothing more than air, that the only thing in this world he could truly rely on is his own strength.
While his family was destroyed, he survived and he would rebuild. It was his responsibility as a cultivator and the last member of the Wu bloodline.
His first goal was to find a new village to settle down in.
Over the last year, he has used his first level of body reforging cultivation to hunt and survive meeting many different people. Among these people were refugees of a war-torn county.
In the nearby Qingshan County, a territory war had taken place between two sects. Because of this, many clans were displaced and sought refuge in nearby counties.
Among them were three clans,
The first was the Zhang clan who were known for their martial prowess and saber techniques.
The Liu Clan were known for their spiritual plant farming and had a second level Alchemist patriarch.
Lastly the Chen Clan who were known for their ability to refine tools.
All of these clans were outliers in different cities within Qingshan County, yet they had formed a caravan on the road to Tieling, deciding to travel together. Each clan roughly possessed 50 members, with barely 5-10 cultivators.
To put it simply, all of them were nearly destroyed. Carrying what little of their foundation they had left to start anew.
Within a large tent of this caravan three clan leaders met discussing an interesting proposition.
Inside were three leaders standing around a table which had a large animal skin map laid across it. This map was of the whole Tieling County.
A large man in yellow robes, who had a saber hung along his hip pondered over the map,
"Where should we go... Liu Changfeng are your thoughts?"
A scholarly looking man in long blue robes pointed at a spot on the map near a river,
"If we're to survive we will need to farm, have access to water, and above all else we need at least a tier one dragon vein to cultivate. Look here"
The last man in the tent was wearing green robes yet carried a wooden backpack holding many different tools. He looked at the location eagerly while taking out a tool to do some measurements,
"Yes... this will work, this will be the place everything begins. The only problem is, this whole area is within the Heimu Forest. There are tier 1 beasts that roam the land. Plus! Any spirit vein has at least a tier two beast as its protector.... We have barely 20 cultivators between us all. All of them are in the 1st - 3rd levels of the Body Reforging realm. What is your plan Zhang Guowei?"
Zhang Guowei snickered and grasped the handle of his saber,
"I will take care of the beast, however, this means the Zhang clan will have first choice when building our clan's estate."
Both the other patriarchs didn't speak for a few moments, the looked at one another then nodded back at Guowie.
Liu Changfeng cleared his throat,
"The Liu clan focuses on alchemy, while we don't have many talents we can provide up to tier 2 pills with the proper materials we also will need a large estate to increase our clans members. This will also improve the amount of pills available, I trust you won't have an objection."
The Chen clan patriarch smirked,
"Fine fine... we will need the earth fire vein if one is found. Our family is founded on artifact refinement. Not only will this help the village, but it will provide our cultivators with needed weapons to defend ourselves."
Zhang Guowei raised his hand,
"Fine. However your clan's first priority needs to be building the foundation of the village. The river has opportunity for trade, we will need to create a market, a few estates, and the typical village essentials. We must lay a solid foundation for the future, one that is easy to expand upon."
Chen Baoliang hit his chest with his palm,
"Leave it to us, the Chen clan can accomplish this within six months. During this time we will rely on your clans for protection."
All three of the clan patriarchs looked at their future village with greed and began laughing.
Suddenly, a young man with long white hair and red eyes accidentally fell through the roof of the tent while being chased by a tier 1 silverback tiger.