Shang Clan City

Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing enter Shang clan city's inner city at chapter 261. Shang clan has remodelled Shang Liang mountain into five inner regions plus the outer city, and young masters compete there under Shang Yan Fei.

Chapter 261 is titled Shang Clan Inner City. Entry fees stack by layer as travellers move deeper into Shang Clan City on Shang Liang Mountain; the fourth inner city is already a middle-class zone above the fifth.^{ch. 261}

City order and young masters

Wei Yang states that Shang clan city is first in the Southern Border by size, holds over ten thousand shops and hundreds of thousands of people, and is further cut into working zones that include food, rock gambling, caretaking, red-light, Gu fighting, and related domains. The battle zone is one of Shang clan’s routes for recruiting outside talent; Wei Yang himself rose from fifth inner city’s battle zone to third and later became an external elder under Shang Yan Fei.^{ch. 265}

Each year one young master can be eliminated from a young master seat.^{ch. 268} Young masters compete for young clan leader, and each must pass Wei Yang’s evaluation. At a clan banquet Wei Yang introduces Shang Yan Fei’s children by the zones they manage: eldest Shang Qiu Niu holds the caretaking zone, Shang Chao Feng the Gu fighting arenas, and Shang Pu Lao the brothels of the red-light zone, with other young masters over rock gambling dens, restaurants and silk stores, auctions, substitute refinement, and the city guards.^{ch. 269}

Later auction-house politics show three young-master factions: Shang Qiu Niu with elder and clansman support as eldest son; Shang Pu Lao with Shang Suan Ni and Shang Bi Xi over brothels, restaurants and silk, and related force; and Shang Chao Feng with Shang Fu Xi holding the Gu battle zone and the auction zone. Shang Chi Wen controls the battle stage and is described as without ambition for the higher contest.^{ch. 305}

Battle stage and Shang Xin Ci

Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing fight on Shang clan city’s battle stage without a loss and become famous enough that young masters try to recruit them. Fang Yuan plans to raise Shang Xin Ci into a young master seat so he can use her position, and he treats that year’s assessment as the chance to do it faster than the six years he remembers from his prior life.^{ch. 305}

Stage fame and young master seat

After Fang Yuan defeats Ju Kai Bei on the stage, people call him Little Beast King, and he and Bai Ning Bing are also called the Black and White Demons. He retires from the stage instead of pressing for external elder, then announces in public that he will help Shang Xin Ci take a young master seat.^{ch. 321}

Leaving the city

Shang clan city’s battle stage alone lets demonic Gu Masters become Shang external elders, a policy unique to Shang; among five great elders, three are external.^{ch. 327} On the Auspicious Festival stretch Shang Xin Ci, walking with Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing, says they have already been in Shang clan city for nearly three years, and Fang Yuan says he will soon leave with Bai Ning Bing for San Cha Mountain.^{ch. 328}

Shang Xin Ci becomes one of the ten young masters after Shang Ya Zi. Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing leave afterward; she sees them off outside the city as they head toward San Cha mountain, and Fang Yuan reminds her of the ranks above the ten young masters: young clan leader Shang Tuo Hai, the five elders, Shang Yan Fei, and the Shang supreme elder.^{ch. 333}