Chapter 171: Reestablishing the Four Commanderies
Qianqiu[1] City, Ning Province, Western Jin.
Qianqiu City had stood for three thousand years. A thousand years ago, the Xu Clan rose to prominence and settled here, renaming the city to Qianqiu. A thousand years after that, it had grown into a metropolis housing hundreds of thousands of people.
This was the ancestral seat of the main family of the Xu Clan all the way back when they were still a clan of mortals. It also served as the clan’s hub connecting the mortals and the immortals.
There was an area in the western district that was kept exceptionally clean. The roads were paved with uniformly-sized limestones. Its surface was spotless, yet several laborers were sweeping it repeatedly like it was covered in dust.
Three nearly identical edifices stood in this area. Occasionally, people could be seen entering or exiting the place, all in a great hurry. All three edifices exuded a chilling aura of lethal intent—in fact, faint, intermittent screams could be heard from time to time. They were the three main halls of the main family: the Heavenly Mysteries Hall, the Privy Council Hall, and the Morn-Eve Hall. Though not necessarily the place with the highest nominal authority, it was unquestionably the most feared place in the entire city.
At the moment, over a dozen people were seated in a circle inside the Privy Council Hall and staring at a sand table map in the center of the hall. Crafted with extreme precision, the map covered most of Ning Province and Ningxi Commandery.
The seats were elevated so as to give them a commanding view of the map below. Yet, most of the people in the hall had downcast eyes. It was clear at a glance that they were in a terrible, brooding mood.
It was at this moment one of them spoke up. “I heard that there has been quite a bit of trouble with the Ningxi branch, and that someone managed to snatch the object of our Immortal Ancestor’s desire?”
The man seated farthest to the outer edge of the assembly replied, “As far as I know, the immortal stone has acknowledged a master and secured its footing, at least for now. The General Affairs Hall has even lost two elders as a result of it.”