After a couple more days of travelling through increasingly deserted roads, Elder Chu and Liu Zhu arrived at a small town at the base of a mountain. This signaled their arrival at Yu Mountain, the home of the Yu family.
The streets were narrow and the houses looked slightly rundown. In stark contrast to the liveliness of Vermilion City, this town was like the majority of the country- extremely rural, and in Liu Zhu's opinion, slightly depressing. Still, a large population of agricultural workers and other peasants were needed to support the creation of cities and the training of cultivators, so Liu Zhu was thankful for their work in a sort of abstract way.
A few minutes after passing the farms and scattered houses which made up the 'city limits', the two came upon a wooden stockade that marked the entrance to the town. The guard at the entrance was only at Bone and Marrow Tempering, and he waved the two through without any trouble.
"The Yu Clan's estate is up that mountain, right?" Elder Chu nodded in response. "Yes, it's only a few hours up that trail. The Yu family owns almost everything in this town, so the trail should be well-maintained." Well, that made sense for a clan similar in size to the Liu Clan- they needed a larger slice of the cake if they only operated in such a minor area. In fact, Liu Zhu wouldn't be surprised if they owned almost everything in the town.
The two parted ways at the base of the mountain and Liu Zhu began to make his way up alone. The trail was wide and unlike the rest of the town's roads, paved. It looked like the Yu family understandably placed a lot of importance on being able to go up and down the mountain easily. After all, if this route was blocked then it would be extremely difficult to reach the outside world. Liu Zhu made his way up the trail at a steady pace, admiring nature for most of the way, until he suddenly caught sight of a flattened area covered in tents and small homes.
Liu Zhu moved closer to the structures, curious, and saw that the homes were all centered around a mine. He continued up the mountain after looking around for a bit, but not even half an hour later he caught sight of another mine surrounded by homes. After seeing this, he realized that mining must be the main industry of the town. The amount of farms outside the city was far lower than what he was expecting, so it would make sense if most of the unskilled labor population was occupied doing something else- in this case, mining.
Liu Zhu passed by a few more mines before he reached the peak of the mountain, and along the way resolved to see what they produced before he left. He was an aspiring refiner, so maybe they'd have some metals local to the area that he could experiment with. He'd never be able to forge anything decent if he didn't practice after all.
Upon reaching the peak of the mountain Liu Zhu was greeted by a metal gate twice his height. Liu Zhu hesitantly shook it, and a few moments later a guard appeared. Liu Zhu couldn't sense his cultivation, so he had to be past Bone and Marrow Tempering.
The guard asked a few questions and confirmed Liu Zhu's identity before opening the gate. "Yu Qiang, the clan's patriarch, is waiting for you. If you go straight ahead you'll be in the main building, and he'll be in the first room to your left on the third floor." Liu Zhu nodded and handed his horse to the guard before entering the building in front of him.
The entranceway was decorated with portraits of the family's previous patriarchs and expensive furniture. As Liu Zhu made his way to the third floor he saw that the rest of the home had similarly expensive furniture and decorations scattered about. This decor may have seemed like posturing to the ordinary person, but in actuality it showed the history behind the family clan- unless a family was a major player within Yutian Country or full of idiots, spending the money to decorate the estate like this would be impossible within a short period of time. The Liu family certainly couldn't do it, not unless they wanted to clear out their savings. In essence, it was a way of saying that your family clan had survived through history and making sure that any visitors knew that- any aesthetic boons were a side effect.
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Liu Zhu entered the first room to the left on the third floor only to see a middle-aged man staring at him, a book lying on the end table next to him. "I heard you coming. You're Liu Zhu, correct?" Liu Zhu politely responded with a 'yes sir' before the man continued. "I'm Yu Qiang, the fifth patriarch of the Yu Clan. I'll be training you in the guandao for the next three months as my sons all seem to have rejected my love for the weapon." After Yu Qiang said this he muttered something angrily under his breath. "I'll teach you for a few hours each morning, and then you'll be allowed to practice as you wish for the rest of the day. If you reach a certain level of proficiency before the end of your stay here, I have a few guandao techniques that I could show to you, but that depends on your merit." There was a short pause before Yu Qiang finished. "We'll begin tomorrow morning- meet me in the third training grounds. The servant outside will show you to your room."
Liu Zhu left the room, almost running into the butler standing immediately outside. "I'll be leading you to your lodgings then." The old man said this, ignoring Liu Zhu nearly body-checking him, and the two of them made their way outside. After exiting the building they were confronted by a boy the same age as Liu Zhu.
The butler began to bow, but was stopped by the boy. "My name is Yu Shi, and I'm the third son of Yu Qiang. You're the person training here while my older brother is gone?" "Yes, that would be me. I'm Liu Zhu, the second son of Liu King, the Demon General." Yu Shi paused, clearly surprised upon hearing Liu King mentioned, but continued after a moment. "Are you interested in sparring with me? I'd like to test out a new technique."
Liu Zhu would normally be interested in sparring, but... Yu Shi was far from his match. He was able to thrash someone at Late Flesh Tempering, and Yu Shi was only at Middle Flesh Tempering. The match would end up too one-sided. Still, he couldn't exactly turn this down by saying he was too strong to fight him- Yu Shi would assume he was being insulted to his face and the whole thing would be blown out proportion. Maybe he could weasel out of it saying that it wouldn't be appropriate, but Yu Qiang could be attempting to test him through this... what a quandary.
Once Liu Zhu thought about it, he decided that the best option here was to just accept the challenge. There was no reason to hide his strength, so he should just defeat Yu Shi and hope he didn't take the loss too badly. "I'd be honored to spar. Is there somewhere appropriate nearby?" Yu Shi nodded and led Liu Zhu towards a dueling grounds similar to the Liu Clan's.
When the two took up positions, a large group of juniors training nearby gathered around, curious about what was happening. As they did so a teenage boy around the age of 16 or 17 joined them before yelling towards Yu Shi. "Junior Brother Shi, are you sparring with the cultivator from the Liu Clan?" Yu Shi nodded and the group of juniors grew excited as they realized what was happening.
Liu Zhu realized that this would establish he standing among the juniors here, and honestly couldn't be happier given that he had to fight anyways. They'd set up a stage and made sure everyone knew who he was, so what else could he ask for? Yu Shi unsheathed a short sword from his belt before pointing it towards Liu Zhu. "Are you ready?!" He yelled in Liu Zhu's direction, having determined that enough people were watching.
Liu Zhu grabbed his guandao from his back and nodded, causing Yu Shi to rush towards him. He launched a slash towards Liu Zhu's leg, while Liu Zhu swept his guandao through the air, trying to slam the shaft into Yu Shi's chest. Yu Shi ignored Liu Zhu's strike, knowing that his attack would land first, but was shocked upon seeing that his strike had only left a scratch on Liu Zhu. Before he could dodge the shaft of the guandao came in contact with his abdomen, and he was sent flying through the air before he crashed into the ground outside of the arena.
The crowd that had previously been cheering watched in astonishment as Yu Shi bounced across the ground like a human ball. A single hit wouldn't have been that devastating if he was prepared, but since he was hit immediately after finishing his attack, he had no time to guard against Liu Zhu's strike.
After a couple of bounces Yu Shi was caught by someone, and nobody said anything, an uncomfortable silence hanging in the air. Liu Zhu cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. He figured that if he said something it might fix the awkward atmosphere. "...Would anyone else like to spar?"