Frosty Peak

Frosty Peak did not originally belong to Wu clan; it belonged to a lone cultivator Gu Immortal who once asked Wu clan for aid. After a long negotiation, Wu clan received Frosty Peak on loan for several hundred years from that lone immortal, who died from tribulation more than a hundred years into the term, after which the peak passed into Wu clan’s confirmed ownership with great yearly output. Xia clan later gained standing to challenge that hold by locating a bloodline heir of the lone immortal, and used the discovery to raise a commotion demanding the peak’s return. ^{ch. 1306}

Among Southern Border’s green mountains, Frosty Peak is unique: completely white and different in height, standing out from the rest. At the apex stands a mortal Gu House. ^{ch. 1307}

The lone cultivator Gu Immortal who owned Frosty Peak was Zhang San Feng, a title rather than a real name, given him because he held three mystical peaks and Frosty Peak was one of them. Xia clan and Wu clan contest the mountain; Fang Yuan arrives as Wu Yi Hai to negotiate at the apex Gu House. Xia Fei Kuai then brings out Zhang San Feng’s bloodline descendant, a rank five Gu Master named Zhang Kai Zui, and presses Fang Yuan to test the bloodline. ^{ch. 1307}

Xia Fei Kuai and Wu Yi Hai (Fang Yuan) agree to settle Frosty Peak’s ownership dispute by a spar: Xia Fei Kuai attacks and Fang Yuan only defends, with ten moves to break his defense. Fang Yuan sets the stake as Frosty Peak’s status quo holding for five years under Wu clan if he wins, and Xia Fei Kuai agrees. ^{ch. 1309}

After ten moves fail to break Fang Yuan’s divination tortoise shell, Xia Fei Kuai concedes the spar and leaves, and Xia Zhuo Mo, left behind to clear up, says as he goes that in five years he will be back. ^{ch. 1311}

After Xia clan’s Gu Immortals withdraw, the mortal Gu House at the apex has been taken away and nothing is left of the peak but snow and cold air pouring off it in every direction. Deep under that packed snow live great numbers of insects, wild Gu worms among them, alongside vegetation that tolerates the cold, the whole of it forming a balanced ecology. Frost jades, left undug on purpose by Wu clan, form the foundation of this resource point. After the spar Fang Yuan digs out most of them, so that the peak’s resource value falls by more than half and its foundation is badly damaged. ^{ch. 1312}