Ping's

There isn’t much entertainment in the poverty stricken town, but on the rare occasions, you can see vendors making malt candy sculptures.

 

 

During the afternoon, adults and children alike will gather at a corner on the street and listen to the town’s storyteller weave his tales.

In the sect itself, members will come together to play chess during their free time. Each division will also prepare feasts to strengthen the bond within the sect. Occasionally, you can also see sect members playing various musical instruments or choreography martial arts dance. Sect members with nothing to do, will find pleasure in sitting in when the others are practicing.

 

The only major celebration in the sect is the day the sect leader exterminated all the smaller unorthodox sects in the area and claimed themselves the ruler of the valley and the land that surrounds it. In present time, the celebration takes place on the 12th of December every year. Legend has it that on that very day, the blood belonging to the enemies of the sect painted the snowy mountain red. Not only that, ever since that day, a rare type of flower that is blood red in colour managed to bloom while every other flower died. This day was therefore officially proclaimed as 雪红日. It has a double meaning. It could take on the meaning of its literal translation, Red Snow Day or its darker and more accurate meaning Blood Snow Day as in Chinese, snow and blood have the same pronunciation.

 

 

This particular flower is known as the hellebore. Of which many species are known to be poisonous. It is also the symbol of the sect and the sect leader is known to have a small red hellebore tattooed onto their right wrist.

During the celebration, the entire villa is decorated with red chiffon like cloth and one can find the presence of the hellebore in every nook and cranny of the villa. Sect members will choreograph a special formation with the skills they have learned and perform it during the celebration. This is the only time the sect leader will appear publicly to their following, even if only to kickstart the entire event.

Wine never stopped flowing and food is always available. Talented sect members will take turn to showcase their artistic talents and the ones that are exceptional will be rewarded by the division leaders. As the day is special, the villa is only protected by deadly traps. Despite that, highly skilled martial artists who had managed to find the sect by a stroke of luck and who naively tried to invade the sect have always faced death at its face, for the villa is impenetrable.

 

Law in the town itself should have been upheld by the officials and the local magistrate court. However, due to the rampant corruption, laws of the town are manipulated to fit the needs of the rich and the powerful. It is not uncommon to see the sons of wealthy family walking away scot-free despite committing serious crimes neither is it uncommon for the officials to simply execute innocent people just to release their anger.

 

In the sect, the sect leader is the alpha and the omega. However, they rarely mete out punishments, they simply come up with a set of laws and pass down orders and expect them to be carried out. Only on the occasions where serious offences have been committed would the sect leader step in. Usually, the 5 division leaders are the one in charge of maintaining law and order.

 

Offenders would either be expelled or killed, depending on the severity of their crimes.

Betrayers will be killed.

Undercover agents from opposition sects will be killed.

Members caught stealing valuables will be flogged and whipped in public. If they were to do it again, they would be expelled.

 

The town at the bottom of the valley is densely populate with houses that are packed very close to each other. However, due to the rampant tyranny by the corrupted officials, a lot of families and people have been killed and hence many of the houses are left vacant.

 

 

This is probably what the exit of the town into the forest that surrounds the valley will look like. A flat wooden bridge will connect the back of the town to the entrance of the valley.

 

 

Inside the town will be main roads and many narrow alleys. During the day, commoners will come out and set up make shift stalls by the side of the road, selling crops, commoners’ desserts and other kind of food. Due to the hard life in the town, entertainment such as molten candy sculpturing are rarely seen.

 

 

This will be the kind of houses the rich will live in.

 

 

It is not easy to find the location of the sect amongst the poisonous floras and faunas, but if you walk in the correct direction, you will eventually be able to find a pathway that can lead you to where the sect calls home.

 

 

Sect members’ living quarters are arranged accordingly to which division they belong to. The houses are all interconnected and to travel from one division’s quarter to the other, one must utilise the bridges that are built all around the enormous villa.

 

 

The Science division conducts their experiments, research and manufacturing in tall pagodas such as the one in the picture.

 

 

This is the parade square in front of the main hall of the sect leader’s living quarters. Every morning, young members will come together in front of the parade square for training. Throughout the days, the younger members will be allocated cleaning duties which involves trimming the shrubs and sweeping dead leaves away from the floor.

 

 

In the center of the sect leader’s abode is a garden that is exclusive to them.

 

Most of the architecture in this world are built using rammed earth, stone, and wood.