Chapter 0-1: The Sect of Si Xiang

The Eastern Mountain seems boundless, extending from the great lakes of the south to the snowy city of Ping in the north. Despite the troubles that it poses to the regular travellers, it serves as the natural division for some of the Wulin's most powerful sects: the northern peak overlooking the city of Ping hosts the Sect of Golden Blade, among the southern valleys hides the descendents of the Bai Clan, and where the streams of Gan River originates lives the Sect of Si Xiang.

While Sect of Golden Blade and the Bai Clan are recognized by many as the absolute epitome of Wulin's many institutions, less martial masters have given the Sect of Si Xiang enough acknowledgement. The Sect hasn't had a glorious history like the Bai Clan whose ancestors aided the first emperor in the assassination of his rival, thus securing the very foundations of the Zhao Empire. It also lacked the popularity that the Sect of Golden Blade enjoys, essentially being the guardian of the city of Ping. The Si Xiang Sect was said to be founded only thirty years ago when the Eastern Mountain Society, an alliance of four smaller sects, formed an escort agency, securing shipments on the Gan River from the Eastern Mountain to the western plains. When the society has found itself crawling out of the financial ruins, the head of society at the time united the four individual sects under the name of co-prosperity, creating the Sect of Si Xiang.

The Sect has never lacked troubles throughout its first two decades. It's ideal geological monopoly over the Gan river has arisen the complaints of a few nearby gangs who thrived on looting merchant fleets. Of course, both the Bai Clan and the Sect of Golden Blades has had their equal share of doubts on whether this newly founded Sect will endanger their influences along the Eastern Mountain. But as the Sect of Si Xiang stepped into its third decade of prosperity, nobody dared to question the legitimacy of this ruler controlling the middle section of the Eastern Mountain.

If this is so, one might ask, then why is the Sect less recognized by the martial masters? Well, to answer this question, one must understand the unique policy that the Si Xiang Sect has adopted. Unlike other established institutions, the Si Xiang Sect's founding fathers never had an unified style of martial arts since the Eastern Mountain Society was made up of four independent sects of different martial techniques. In order to overcome this inconsistency in martial styles, the founders of the Sect simply conjured the essence of the four prior sect's forms. As a result, the Si Xiang Unified Forms is regarded by many as ingenuine and lacking in depth.

This changed, however, when the third Head of the Si Xiang Sect invented Si Xiang Blade Works.